Peace was taken up as a weapon in the Bulgarian presidential election campaign.
The full-scale war that Russia launched against Ukraine in 2022 was also the main topic of the only television debate between Iliana Yotova and Andrey Gyurov on BNT.
In the first round, Yotova, who is completing Rumen Radev's presidential term, beat Gyurov by only 42,719 votes, or 2.807 percentage points - despite predictions of a much larger lead. The photo finish turned the debate into a test for both of them.
However, their claims on air were not fact-checked by the public media. DW conducted its own independent investigation.
When did the war in Ukraine begin?
Yotova insisted that peace could only be achieved through negotiations with Russia, but did not explain what would compel Moscow to end its aggression and abide by any agreement. She dismissed calls for a temporary ceasefire in Ukraine as unworkable, but again proposed a moratorium on hostilities in the Black Sea, where commercial ships have been subjected to Russian attacks.
Gyurov resisted the suggestion that the choice was between peace and war, imposed by the ruling party in the campaign. He named Russia as the aggressor and insisted on strengthening Bulgaria's defense capabilities and on allied security guarantees. The difference was not in the desire to end the war, but in the answer to the question of how to guarantee peace.
Iotova's statement that the war began in 2013-2014, and not in 2022, was also indicative. In November 2013, the Euromaidan protests broke out in Kiev after President Viktor Yanukovych's refusal to sign the association agreement with the EU. Russian military aggression began in 2014 with the occupation of Crimea and intervention in Donbas, and in February 2022 it grew into a full-scale invasion. The mixing of the political crisis in Ukraine with the beginning of Russian aggression, as well as with the protests of Ukrainian citizens against Yanukovych, blurs responsibility for the war.