Bulgaria adheres to the Charter of the United Nations (UN) regarding aid to Ukraine, especially since everything we have sent as packages is of an exclusively defensive nature. This is what he said in the show “This Saturday” on BTV the acting Minister of Defense Atanas Zapryanov, BTA broadcasts.
APCs are in the civil defense of Ukraine, they are used for internal defense, as are the cartridges we send, so there is no point in imposing restrictions, he commented on the topic of whether the weapons received from Kiev can be used to strike military targets on the territory of Russia.
According to the UN Charter, Ukraine, as a victim of aggression, can both receive aid and use the aid provided to it in any way it sees fit. That is, the use of provided military systems to hit military targets on the territory of Russia by the Ukrainian side is not a violation of international law, the acting minister also explained.
Military action near Kharkiv is very typical because Russian firepower is on Russian territory and when you are fired on from across the border you have no way to defend yourself if you don't hit the targets that are firing at you from across the border . Nevertheless, every country has the right to impose so-called “national restrictions”, the acting minister also said.
Atanas Zapryanov explained that he does not share the opinion of President Rumen Radev that all NATO member countries are in one way or another involved in the conflict between Moscow and Kiev.
In response to a question, the caretaker minister announced that the topic of sending Bulgarian military to Ukraine was never discussed, neither by the previous elected government, nor now by the caretaker government. This topic, if it will be discussed, is within the powers of the Bulgarian parliament, he repeated again.
At this stage, the official cabinet implements the already adopted decisions of the National Assembly, including the fact that we participate in the training of the Ukrainian armed forces outside the territory of Ukraine, and we, as an official government, have no right to even think about joining such an initiative &ndash ; explained Zapryanov in connection with the information that appeared that France is considering sending military instructors to the field.
The caretaker government is yet to decide who will lead the Bulgarian delegation at the NATO high-level meeting in Washington, Atanas Zapryanov also said. A common national position on the discussed issues must also be adopted. It is possible, depending on how the domestic political situation develops, that this decision will also be taken by a political government, he added.
Most likely, the repaired runway of “Graf Ignatievo“, which will be used by the F-16 aircraft, will be accepted very soon, added the acting military minister. It is currently being flooded and other necessary expert assessments are being carried out. The problem there is with some sites that need to be certified by the US, where we are trying to catch up. At the end of August, it will be clear how far we have come regarding the storage of the missile armament.
Companies that are lagging are already doing their best to catch up. If we certify these four objects, we can safely say that in the first quarter of 2025 we will receive the planes on our territory, Atanas Zapryanov added, and in response to a question he denied the possibility of Bulgaria paying rent to another country for the new planes.