One had begun to wonder what he actually wanted there. When Bulgaria's Prime Minister Kiril Petkov traveled to Kiev on April 28 to assure President Volodymyr Selenskyj of his support, he did not have much to offer. Not officially, anyway. His coalition partner in Sofia, the Socialist Party, had spoken out strictly against arms deliveries, out of ties with Russia.
When Petkov and Selensky finally appeared before the cameras together, they announced an agreement that sounded rather strange. Bulgaria would repair military equipment from Ukraine. At this, the two men smiled and held hands tightly.
Bulgaria has gone down in history with its stance of being the only NATO country, besides Hungary, not to supply weapons. Until now. What the public did not learn: at the time of the Kiev trip, Bulgaria's government had already initiated a procedure for comprehensive military aid to Ukraine, according to WELT research.
In order to avoid official arms deliveries, ammunition and armaments thus entered Ukraine indirectly. At times, Bulgaria covered a third of the Ukrainian army's needs. But that's not all: unnoticed, Bulgaria also exported diesel to Ukraine, thus securing up to 40 percent of the tanks and vehicles needed by Kiev's army between April and August. This is particularly explosive because Bulgaria was processing only crude oil from Russia in its refinery at the time.
It is the story of a covert strategy to help Ukraine against all odds. The government of one of the poorest EU countries, which, moreover, as a former Eastern bloc state was long regarded as Moscow's appendage, mustered a courage that exemplified to other countries: despite dependencies on Russia and concerns about Putin's aggression, there are creative ways to stand by Kiev's side. Behind this were, to a large extent, then-incumbent Prime Minister Petkov and Finance Minister Assen Vasilev of the reformist party "We Continue Change."
For the first time, today's opposition politicians have spoken publicly and exclusively with WELT about what happened behind the scenes during crucial months. The retrospective shows: The two political career changers and Harvard-educated economists, who had actually set out to fight corruption in their country, had understood faster than many other heads of state that Europe must not lose any time. Bulgaria also took a leading role in EU sanctions and ways out of dependence on Russian energy.
The government in Kiev confirmed the covert military assistance when asked by WELT. "Kiril Petkov has shown integrity, and I will always be grateful to him for using all his political skills to find a solution," Ukrainian Foreign Minister Dmytro Kuleba told WELT.