Bulgaria approves repairs to Ukrainian army tools, not navy support

SOFIA (Reuters) – Bulgaria’s parliament voted on Wednesday to permit repairs of Ukrainian weighty military gear and seek out strategies to assistance Ukrainian exports of grains and electrical power, sidestepping proposals to provide direct armed service aid to Kyiv.

European Union and NATO member condition Bulgaria has condemned the Russian invasion of Ukraine, supported sanctions towards Moscow, refused to fork out for Russian gasoline with roubles and hosted more than 90,000 Ukrainian refugees.

But the Black Sea place stays 1 of the several in the 27-member EU to have not despatched arms and ammunitions to Kyiv as a single of the four coalition companions, the Russia-pleasant Socialists, opposed the shift and threatened to bolt if it have been authorized.

Lawmakers voted to let the federal government to present armed forces-specialized assistance to Ukraine and see how it can maintenance Ukrainian large navy gear as Ukraine has requested.

Two other proposals that supported sending military services assist to Ukraine did not gain more than enough assistance in the chamber.

Bulgarian arms exports have greater threefold due to the fact the start of the Russian invasion of Ukraine, formal information confirmed. The place does not export arms to Ukraine directly but officers have claimed that they can’t manage what consumers, mostly from EU countries, would like to do more with these exports.

(Reporting by Tsvetelia Tsolova)