After long deliberations the Bulgarian National Assembly voted to mandate the government to provide humanitarian, financial and military-technical assistance to Ukraine, including repair of Ukrainian military equipment in Bulgaria, Speaker of Parliament Nikola Minchev said.
Bulgaria will continue to support Ukraine's EU membership aspiration and to provide assistance to Ukrainian people fleeing the war, Minchev informed. Sofia will assist the export of Ukrainian grain via the Bulgarian Black Sea port of Varna. Bulgaria will strengthen energy cooperation in general and particularly supply of electricity and natural gas from Ukraine.
The MPs agreed that Bulgaria will repair Ukrainian military equipment in Bulgarian military industrial plants and it will continue providing humanitarian aid, especially medicines, clothing and food items.
The draft resolution was proposed by We Continue the Change party. It was backed by all four parties in the government coalition, as well as the formerly ruling GERB and the Movement for Rights and Freedoms.
Only the nationalist Vazrazhdane partry voted against.
After 5 pm, a Vazrazhdane protest against the aid and a protest of citizens supporting Bulgaria's assistance for Ukraine took place in front of the monument of the Soviet Army in Sofia. Citizens announced the idea to wrap the controversial monument with Ukrainian and Bulgarian flags. However, protesters for neutrality opposed their intentions and police intervened to separate the two groups.
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