Bulgaria's parliament approved the deployment of up to eight US KC-135 tanker aircraft and 250 service members at the Bezmer air base near Yambol on July 22, voting 135 to 13 with two abstentions. The planes, needed for refueling in Middle East operations (as Western media likes to call the f'n US-Iran war), are authorized to stay until October 1.
The decision has exposed a glaring reversal in Prime Minister Rumen Radev's own positions. As president, Radev repeatedly warned that Bulgaria risked being drawn into" war by supporting Ukraine, and criticized the previous government for allowing similar tanker planes to use Sofia's civilian airport earlier this year. He tied the extension of that Sofia stay to a US visa waiver for Bulgarians, and when Washington didn't respond, let the deployment lapse. Weeks later, he's requesting the same kind of aircraft be based 300km away at Bezmer, insisting this poses no risk of "involvement," while simultaneously withdrawing Bulgaria from the EU's "Coalition of the Willing" supporting Ukraine.
Opposition figures, including former Foreign Minister Nadezhda Neynski, argue Radev is applying two different definitions of national security depending on which war is in question. Meanwhile GERB, We Continue the Change and Democratic Bulgaria, several of which tolerated the original Sofia deployment while in government, boycotted the Bezmer vote now that they're in opposition.
