Rumen Radev.Image: Keystone
analysis
Bulgaria is slowing down on the new EU sanctions package against Russia and stopping military aid to Ukraine. Concerns about a new blockade are growing in Brussels.
Jul 12, 2026, 3:59 amJul 12, 2026, 3:59 am
Simon Cleven / t-online
After Viktor Orban’s election defeat in mid-April, there was great relief in Europe. The former prime minister had blocked EU decisions all too often – especially when it came to supporting Ukraine or taking punitive measures against Russia. Orban’s successor Peter Magyar is not an outspoken friend of Ukraine, but appears to be much more cooperative. And yet things are still not going well in Brussels when it comes to aid for Kyiv.
However, the new rulers in Sofia are hiding the fact that Bulgaria itself benefited from military aid to Ukraine. At the request of Deutsche Welle, the Ministry of Defense in Sofia admitted that it had received around 3.4 million euros from the EU Peace Facility between 2025 and 2026. This meant that military aid to Ukraine was reimbursed from state reserves.
Former Bulgarian Defense Minister Todor Tagarev expects that while Radev may sometimes sound like an Orban in government office, he will probably behave more like Slovak Prime Minister Robert Fico. “Similar to Fico, Radev is likely to express criticism of EU policies at home and make ambiguous statements at official meetings,” Tagarev writes in an article for the European Council on Foreign Relations think tank. “However, it is unlikely that he will block EU decisions on sanctions against Russia and support for Ukraine.”
The next EU summit is taking place at the beginning of September. And until then, Ukraine supporters in Brussels will probably have to do a lot of convincing to bring Bulgaria into line. But why is the new government in Sofia taking a stand on important Ukraine issues? What consequences does this have for Ukraine? And is the EU now facing a new blockade in aid to Kiev?
Bulgaria’s Ukraine course is lurching
The Bulgarian position on supporting Ukraine with weapons has been ambivalent since the beginning of the full-scale Russian invasion. Due to its long history and role as a satellite state of the former Soviet Union, the Bulgarian population still has close ties and positive feelings towards Russia. In addition, Sofia feared possible acts of sabotage by Russian agents in response to the support for Kiev. Government members therefore declared that “not a single bullet made in Bulgaria” would be sent to Ukraine. But that wasn’t true.
Since Soviet times, Bulgaria’s defense industry has specialized in the production of small-caliber weapons and ammunition of all kinds. This was particularly important for Ukraine at the beginning of the war: its soldiers mainly had old Soviet weapon systems at their disposal and little ammunition. Bulgaria then delivered primarily Soviet-caliber artillery ammunition, but also battle tanks and armored troop carriers to Great Britain, the Czech Republic and Poland, which in turn passed these on to Ukraine. The support therefore came primarily through indirect channels.
However, Bulgaria’s Ukraine policy is anything but consistent. Since Russia’s full-scale invasion of Ukraine began in February 2022, there have been seven prime ministers in Bulgaria. And with each change of government, public communication regarding Ukraine also changed. While some governments also spoke openly about arms deliveries to Kiev, others stuck to covert, indirect support via third countries.
Radev: “We have already given enough”
Rumen Radev now wants to put an end to this: “We have already given enough while our country continues to suffer from the socio-economic consequences of this bloody war,” he explained in mid-June. His Defense Minister Dimitar Stoyanov had previously announced that Bulgaria “no longer has to hand over weapons” because its own stocks were “below the required minimum level”. In addition, the war in Ukraine “cannot be solved on the battlefield”.
This means that Radev’s government is taking a line that should please Putin. The Kremlin repeatedly demands Ukraine’s unconditional surrender at the negotiating table.
Bulgaria benefits from aid to Ukraine
However, the new rulers in Sofia are hiding the fact that Bulgaria itself benefited from military aid to Ukraine. At the request of Deutsche Welle, the Ministry of Defense in Sofia admitted that it had received around 3.4 million euros from the EU Peace Facility between 2025 and 2026. This meant that military aid to Ukraine was reimbursed from state reserves.
The Bulgarian government also generated revenue of a good 200 million euros from the triangular deals to indirectly support Ukraine. Furthermore, Bulgaria received modern military equipment according to NATO standards as compensation for the surrender of its old Soviet weapons. In total, Bulgaria’s support for Ukraine (humanitarian and military) amounts to 256 million euros, according to the Kiel Institute for the World Economy.
In view of this, the Ukrainian Foreign Ministry also reacted with surprise at the statements made by the new government in Sofia: “Ukraine is currently not receiving free military aid from Bulgaria. Ukrainian-Bulgarian defense cooperation will continue on a commercial basis and will be mutually beneficial for both Ukraine and Bulgaria,” said ministry spokesman Heorhiy Tychyi in mid-June.
It was only in March that the Bulgarian interim government under Prime Minister Andrei Gyurov signed a ten-year defense cooperation agreement with Ukraine. The Radev government does not want to shake this. Although the current head of government criticized the agreement, he apparently also sees the advantages that arise from the modernization of the Bulgarian army through Ukraine’s combat experience and modern technology.
Radev on sanctions against Kirill I: “The time of the Crusades is over”
There are other reasons why Bulgaria is blocking the new EU sanctions package against Russia. On the one hand, Rumen Radev wants Patriarch Kirill I, head of the Russian Orthodox Church and ardent supporter of the war of aggression against Ukraine, to be excluded from sanctions lists.
Orthodoxy is probably the closest connection between Bulgaria and Russia. Although the Bulgarian Orthodox Church is separate from the Russian offshoot, both belong to the Eastern Church and share the same faith and dogmatics. The EU wanted to add Kirill I to sanctions lists as early as 2022 – but failed due to the veto of the then Hungarian Prime Minister Viktor Orban.
Radev describes the fact that there is now a new attempt to sanction the patriarch as “influence in religious relationships”. The Bulgarian head of government called for people not to mix politics and religion: “The time of the Crusades is over,” said Radev. As “Politico” reported on Friday, Italy could also join the resistance against the sanctions against Cyril I.
On the other hand, Radev argues with the possible economic consequences of the planned EU punitive measures for his country. Bulgaria does not purchase natural gas or oil from Russia. However, the Russian oil company Lukoil operates the only refinery in Bulgaria that runs on oil from Kazakhstan. The EU wants to impose punitive measures on Lukoil as part of sanctions against the Russian shadow fleet, as can be seen from the June decision.
Sofia wants to smooth things over
So far, the Bulgarian EU blockade is just an announcement. How fierce the resistance will be in reality remains to be seen. As recently as May, Radev’s colleagues tried to assuage the impression that a “new Orban” was coming to power in Bulgaria who wanted to cause discord in the EU. “There will be no radical, extreme change in foreign policy. Nothing like that,” explained the head of Radev’s government faction, Petar Vitanov. “For nine years, Rumen Radev has represented very clear positions, and almost all European heads of state and government have moved closer to these positions.”
Former Bulgarian Defense Minister Todor Tagarev expects that while Radev may sometimes sound like an Orban in government office, he will probably behave more like Slovak Prime Minister Robert Fico. “Similar to Fico, Radev is likely to express criticism of EU policies at home and make ambiguous statements at official meetings,” Tagarev writes in an article for the European Council on Foreign Relations think tank. “However, it is unlikely that he will block EU decisions on sanctions against Russia and support for Ukraine.”
Ultimately, says Tagarev, Radev’s government wants to continue investing in the modernization of the Bulgarian army. And since the loan under the EU’s Security Action for Europe program is Bulgaria’s “only source of new financing for rearmament, new projects will be implemented as a priority under the EU-led initiative,” said the former minister. In short: Bulgaria is even more dependent on the EU than Hungary under Orban, so tough resistance from Sofia is unlikely.
Apparently the new Irish EU Council Presidency also sees it that way. The country’s EU ambassador, Aingeal O’Donoghue, was at least confident that the new EU sanctions can be passed on time by July 15th. “As with all sanctions packages, it is about listening to the member states, understanding their real red lines and then exploring where compromises are possible,” she told the Euronews portal. This is always a “balancing act”.