Rome. April 10. INTERFAX - The Bulgarian Defense Ministry has confirmed the fact of negotiations on the transfer of MiG-29 fighters to Ukraine, subject to receiving more modern combat aircraft from Western partners, the EFE news agency reported on Monday.
In addition, the ministry stressed that they are not going to transfer fighters to Kiev for free.
EFE notes that Bulgaria currently has 16 MiG-29 fighters, and only six of them are in working condition. Due to EU sanctions against Russia, Bulgaria can no longer receive technical assistance from the Russian side.
Initially, Bulgaria's contacts with partners regarding the possible transfer of aircraft to Ukraine were reported in secret Pentagon documents that were recently freely available on social networks.
EFE emphasizes that if Bulgaria decides to transfer its MiG-29s to Ukraine now, it will remain without fighters at all for at least a year and a half, since the batch of F-16s previously purchased from the United States will arrive only in 2025.
At the same time, the agency recalls that Bulgarian President Rumen Radev has repeatedly spoken out against the supply of weapons to Ukraine and expressed the hope that the government of the country will no longer supply Ukraine with weapons. At the moment, a provisional government appointed by Radev is working in Bulgaria.
