Talking to reporters after the tensions arising between the government and the presidency following the visit to Bulgaria by Volodymyr Zelensky, President Rumen Radev criticized the government for their “lack of opinion and position”, stating they were following those of the big partner countries.

“I have always defended the Bulgarian interest, not the interest of any other country. The question is whose interests are politicians from parliament and from the government defending – obviously, in many instances not the Bulgarian interests,” President Radev said further.

Rumen Radev also criticized the Council of Ministers for not coordinating, beforehand, the visit by the Ukrainian president to Bulgaria with the presidency. “In this situation it would have been the easiest thing for me not to hold the meeting at all, but that would not have been a good signal to the 300,000 Bulgarians in Ukraine,” he said.

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As to the intention to provide Ukraine with munitions, the president asked how come the National Assembly decided to give the government free rein to empty the Bulgarian army’s wartime stocks warehouses in just one day. "Try as they may to convince you that they will be refilled very quickly, that is not true. These processes take years,” he said.

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Rumen Radev also criticized the decision to sell the reactors from the Belene NPP project to Ukraine, saying it was not just a question of the reactors as such, but of the fate of a second nuclear power plant in the country.

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