The National Assembly approved the draft declaration on non-participation of Bulgarian armed forces in military actions on the territory of Ukraine outside the alliance commitments of the Republic of Bulgaria in NATO and the country's other international commitments under the EU, UN and OSCE.
The text was approved with 166 votes “for”. Only “Vazrazhdane” voted “against”. All 10 deputies from the MECH party and one MP from PP-DB abstained.
The PP-DB's proposal to add to the text that the country condemns Russia's actions on the grounds that previous declarations of the National Assembly, in which this text appears, were taken into account, specified "Nova" television".
The GERB leader Boyko Borisov took a position on the topic, but not in the plenary hall: "Russia is an aggressor. Russia entered the territory of Ukraine. If the administration in Kiev has carried out actions that are illegal, this is a completely different topic. The support - mine and GERB's - for Ukraine is the same as it was during the assembly. At the meeting of the “European People's Party“ (EPP), in front of the chairman Ursula von der Leyen and over a dozen prime ministers, I expressed GERB's position and it is categorical support for Ukraine".
Borisov reiterated that his party has always supported peace. "And here I extremely support President Trump to stop the killing of people - both Russians and Ukrainians, of peaceful citizens, and this must happen. From there on, Europe, which is the main victim of this war, the people who have been killed, the economic sanctions, the huge price increase – Draghi's report, I mean, by tens of percents of fuel, making the European economy uncompetitive“, he emphasized.
During the debate in the hall, Kosta Stoyanov from "Vazrazhdane" accused the ruling majority of lying because of the declaration on Ukraine.
"The most important thing we have to say is that this declaration is a door in the field for sending Bulgarian military personnel to the territory of Ukraine. You are currently lying to the citizens of Bulgaria that you will not send Bulgarian military personnel to Ukraine, but you are leaving a number of hypotheses under which to do this", he said.
From „Vazrazhdane“ demanded the deletion of several points in the declaration and made a number of proposals for editorial amendments. The Speaker of the Parliament Natalia Kiselova called on them to submit the editorial proposals made in writing.
Radostin Vassilev from the MECH party, on the other hand, defined the document as a typical example of “I wanted a lot, but I had no desire“.
"The destroyed and liquidated “There is such a people“ (ITN) are trying to emerge as defenders and fighters for peace, but it won't happen," Vassilev said from the parliamentary rostrum.
ITN MP Pavela Mitova said from the parliamentary rostrum that such a declaration needs to be made by the Bulgarian National Assembly (NA), which is the only institution that can make such decisions for such actions, for the simple reason that in the Bulgarian media space there has recently been speculation and too many questions have been asked to the leaders of the political parties whether such participation of the Bulgarian armed forces will be envisaged or not.
BGNES recalls that on Thursday the ministers of defense and foreign affairs stated that no one from Bulgaria officially wanted to send soldiers or peacekeepers to Ukraine.