Ex-PM: Bulgaria met Ukraine's ammunition needs by one-third in spring 2022

Bulgaria was secretly providing Ukraine's Armed Forces with ammunition during the spring of 2022, supplying up to a third of their needs. 

The Bulgarian government issued export permits to intermediary companies, TASS reports, citing the German newspaper Die Welt.

The airport in Rzeszow, Poland, 70 kilometres from the Ukrainian border, as well as overland routes through Romania and Hungary, were used for the shipments.

"According to our estimates, about a third of the ammunition needed by the Ukrainian army at the beginning of the war came from Bulgaria," said Kiril Petkov, who served as Bulgaria's prime minister from December 2021 to August 2022.

Ukrainian Foreign Minister Dmytro Kuleba confirmed in an interview with the newspaper that Bulgaria had indeed helped the Ukrainian Armed Forces.

"We knew there was a large amount of ammunition we needed in Bulgarian depots, so the president [of Ukraine, Volodymyr] Zelenskyy sent me to use diplomatic dexterity to get the necessary materials," the diplomat said.

During Kuleba's visit to Sofia in April 2022, Bulgarian Prime Minister Kyrylo Petkov said the domestic political situation was "difficult" while promising to do "everything in his power" to support Ukraine. The Ukrainian foreign minister explained that this did not mean direct military supplies, but rather that companies from NATO countries and Ukraine could buy what they needed from Bulgarian suppliers.

According to Die Welt, the payment for supplies was made by the UK and the US.