Bulgaria, the poorest member of the European Union, and what has been believed to be a pro-Moscow country has secretly aided Ukraine in the early days of the Russian invasion.
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Early days of the invasion
Bulgaria, an EU and NATO member country, has historically maintained close ties with Russia and Vladimir Putin, and despite that, it opted to aid Ukraine in the early days of the war.
The country has many politicians close to Moscow and therefore kept secret the support it was providing towards Kyiv.
However, reports now reveal that the support that authorities in Bulgaria provided to Ukraine was monumental.
Details have now emerged about the support of Bulgaria, which provided much-needed ammunition and fuel to Ukraine.
The former Bulgarian Prime Minister Kiril Petkov told the German newspaper Die Welt, that Ukraine received from his government a substantial amount of ammunition when the war broke out:
We estimate that about a third of the ammunition needed by the Ukrainian army in the early phase of the war came from Bulgaria.
Bulgaria, despite being one of the poorer counties in Europe, with fractured internal politics and at great Geo-political risk, refused to be a bystander. They played a critical role in helping Ukraine hold on against Vladimir Putin’s invasion of #Ukraine: https://t.co/0kZ7Q06LKu
— Michael McNamara 🇺🇦 🇺🇸 ☮️ (@Mikebespeckled) January 18, 2023
Using Russian fuel against the Russian invasion
To the surprise of many,Bulgaria also pulled off a bold move: repurposing Russian-imported diesel by exporting it to Ukraine, which was in desperate need at the time.
The former Bulgarian Finance Minister, Assen Vassilev, told Die Welt, thathis country in the spring of 2022 became one of the largest exporters of diesel to Ukraine by covering 40% of their needs, Politico reports.
The exported diesel was processed at a Black Sea refinery and was sold in Bulgaria through a subsidiary company of the Russian petroleum company Lukoil.
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Oh, but poor and naive Putin did not know his Bulgarian partners were going to reexport Russian fuels to Ukraine. They deceived him again.
— Никола Миковић / Nikola Mikovic (@nikola_mikovic) January 18, 2023
Now Lukoil will close its refinery in Burgas, and will stop doing any business with Bulgaria.
What do you mean it won't? https://t.co/CVMzo9JqrR
Ukraine's Foreign Minister, Dmytro Kuleba, told the German daily he believed the then-government in Sofia 'decided to be on the right side of history, and help us defend ourselves against a much stronger enemy'.
Sources used:
-Newsweek: ‘Putin Betrayed by Close Ally Who Helped Out Ukraine Behind His Back’
-Politico: ‘Bulgaria to the rescue: How the EU’s poorest country secretly saved Ukraine’
