Bulgaria to transfer air defense equipment to Ukraine

The Bulgarian parliament’s defense committee approved the transfer of man-portable air defense systems (MANPADS) and surface-to-air missiles of various types to Ukraine to strengthen its air defense.

The decision was supported by 11 members of the parliamentary committee at an extraordinary meeting on Thursday, December 7.

It regards outdated and redundant air defense equipment – man-portable air defense systems and surface-to-air missiles of various types.

Bulgaria claims that Ukraine has the ability to return defective missiles to service.

“Unlike Bulgaria, Ukraine has stated that it has the ability to adopt such defective ammunition and put it into service in the Ukrainian army,” Bulgaria said.

The proposal to transfer air defense equipment is part of a draft decision to provide additional military assistance to Ukraine, which was presented on Thursday by the parties of the Bulgarian government coalition.

It refers to Bulgaria’s determination of an excessive amount of weapons and equipment needed to man wartime formations and the preparation of a proposal to provide these weapons and equipment to Ukraine.

Negotiations are also to be held with the governments of NATO member states on the deployment of air defense and anti-ship missile systems to strengthen Bulgaria’s defense capabilities.

In addition, it is proposed that Bulgaria join a coalition of countries to train Ukrainian pilots on F-16 fighter jets and allow up to 160 Ukrainian military personnel to train on a rotational basis per year.

As previously reported, in September of this year, the Bulgarian Parliament approved the transfer of S-300 missiles to Ukraine.

Also, the ruling majority in Bulgaria’s parliament plans to override the presidential veto of the transfer of armored personnel carriers to Ukraine.

It regards a transfer of about 100 wheeled armored personnel carriers with available weapons and spare parts from the country’s Ministry of Internal Affairs depots free of charge.