Bulgaria to hand over 100 armoured personnel carriers to Ukraine: what kind of vehicles are they

Bulgaria will donate a hundred armoured personnel carriers to Ukraine. They are in the reserve of the Bulgarian Ministry of the Interior, but are not used by the agency.

A month ago, the decision to transfer the APCs to Ukraine was made by Bulgarian MPs, and on 4 August, the Bulgarian government approved a draft agreement between the Bulgarian Interior Ministry and the Ministry of Defence of Ukraine. This was reported by Novinite.com.

According to the publication, on 4 August, the Bulgarian government approved a draft agreement between the Ministry of Internal Affairs and the Ministry of Defence of Ukraine on the free provision of armoured vehicles. Now Interior Minister Kalin Stoyanov is to hold talks with the Ukrainian side and sign the agreement.

The decision to transfer the armoured personnel carriers, which are in the reserve of the Ministry of Internal Affairs, to Ukraine was agreed during the visit of Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy to Sofia last month. It was supported by Bulgarian MPs: 148 MPs voted in favour of the allocation of the vehicles to support Ukraine, while 52 MPs voted against.

We are talking about a hundred armoured personnel carriers made in 1960-70. They are the property of the Bulgarian Ministry of Internal Affairs, but have never been used. In addition to the armoured personnel carriers, according to one of the initiators of the transfer, Bulgarian MP Ivailo Mirchev, it is planned to transfer additional spare parts and weapons.

Mirchev also stated that over the past 16 months, Ukraine has purchased 5 billion Bulgarian leva (about 2 billion 822 million US dollars) worth of weapons from Bulgaria. At the same time, he said, Bulgaria remains one of the countries that provided the least assistance to Ukraine. He said this when discussing the possible transfer of armoured personnel carriers in the Bulgarian parliament.

"Part of the reason for providing armoured vehicles with the weapons and spare parts for their maintenance to Ukraine is that over the past 25 years, the maintenance and storage of the vehicles in question has required significant financial costs from the budget. Also, the equipment in question would hardly be applicable in the performance of the main tasks of the National Gendarmerie Service. For these reasons, most of this equipment is recognised as obsolete for the needs of the Ministry of Internal Affairs, but it can be a serious support for Ukraine," Bulgarian media wrote at the time.

In early August, it became known that the United States had signed an agreement with Bulgaria and South Korea to supply Ukraine with ammunition. According to the Financial Times, the deal is to increase the supply of 155mm ammunition, which is essential to support Ukraine in its counter-offensive against Russian troops along the entire front line.

It was also reported that Bulgaria had nationalised a port leased by Russia's Lukoil. Bulgarian MPs who supported the decision believe that this initiative will stop Russia from using Bulgarian infrastructure to finance the war.

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