Prime Minister Rumen Radev
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.
