Ukraine criticized Bulgaria’s pro-Russian president over his remarks that Kyiv is to blame for the war with Russia and that supplying arms to Ukraine only prolongs the conflict.
Bulgarian President Rumen Radev had told reporters on Friday that he wanted “to make it clear that Ukraine insists on fighting this war,” the Associated Press reported. “But it should also be clear that the bill is paid by the whole of Europe,” he said.
The Ukrainian Embassy in Sofia responded on Saturday by saying that blaming the war on Ukraine, which “was treacherously attacked by its northern neighbor, is one of the most common supporting theses of Russian propaganda and hybrid warfare in Europe,” according to a statement issued on Saturday. The embassy said Kyiv was making all possible efforts to restore peace and rejected Radev’s stance that supplying arms to Ukraine fuels and prolongs the war, according to the AP report.
The conflict comes after Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy earlier this month upbraided Radev at a meeting in Sofia, after the Bulgarian president said that there was “no military solution” to the war in Ukraine and that “more and more weapons will not solve it.” Zelenskyy stressed that Russian President Vladimir Putin had launched a “war of annihilation against Ukrainians, not other countries” and said Sofia’s government — at odds with Radev — was right to supply arms.
Zelenskyy was visiting Bulgaria largely to meet the pro-NATO and pro-EU administration of Prime Minister Nikolai Denkov, which has supported arms supplies to Ukraine. Radev, a former air force chief, is more sympathetic to Russia.
Denkov was quick to counter Radev’s position and put the blame for Russia’s invasion of Ukraine on Putin and his administration.
“On the contrary, the one who insists on fighting this war is the circle around Putin. They started this war,” Denkov said. “I say again: the quickest way to stop this war is for this same circle to call on their troops to get out,” the prime minister added.
The Ukrainian Embassy emphasized that the provision of defense funds to Ukraine does not lead to an increase in casualties, but means that more lives can be saved, according to the AP report.
