Bulgaria spent the week sending its allies two opposite messages on Ukraine, and the government insists both are the same policy.
On July 14 in Paris, Prime Minister Rumen Radev announced he had declined a personal invitation from Emmanuel Macron to join the Coalition of the Willing, the 30-plus country format coordinating military and financial support for Kyiv. “Bulgaria does not participate in a coalition that insists on continued financial and military aid to Ukraine,” he said, arguing for diplomacy instead. A day later, Foreign Minister Velislava Petrova was in Kyiv at the Ukraine-Southeast Europe Summit, where Bulgaria backed a declaration recognizing that same coalition as “an effective mechanism” and expressing readiness to strengthen participation in its work.
The cleanup was messier than the contradiction. The Foreign Ministry said the declaration was non-binding and the summit informal. Radev then claimed Petrova never signed anything, though such declarations typically list supporting countries rather than collect physical signatures, and Bulgaria’s name is right there in the text. Asked directly by reporters whose side Bulgaria is on, Petrova named Russia as the aggressor, denied Bulgaria is neutral, then walked away without answering which outcome Bulgaria wants.
This was the third reversal in three weeks. Radev refused to sign a NATO eastern flank declaration calling Russia a threat on June 25, then signed NATO’s summit declaration with the same language days later. In Ankara on July 8 he said Bulgaria would support Ukraine financially within its means, then said the next day such means don’t exist.
The reactions from abroad show how little the act is convincing anyone. Latvian PM Andris Kulbergs lumped Bulgaria with Greece over their sanctions objections and asked bluntly: “do you want to make money or do you want peace? You can’t have both.” Moscow, meanwhile, refused to read anything friendly into Sofia’s moves. Foreign Ministry spokesperson Maria Zakharova said Bulgaria isn’t turning toward Russia, it’s simply no longer capable of sustaining support for Kyiv, and Russia still keeps Bulgaria on its unfriendly states list.
Ruling party MPs call it “multilayered diplomacy.” The opposition calls it “political schizophrenia.” GERB, PP, DB and even Revival, from the opposite direction, all say the same thing: nobody knows what Bulgaria’s actual position is. The presidential election in November may explain more than the diplomacy does.