Bulgaria will not provide any more weapons or ammunition from its army stockpiles to Ukraine and cannot provide financial assistance either, Prime Minister Rumen Radev said in Dublin on Friday, on the sidelines of an informal meeting of the European Council.

Source: Bulgarian News Agency via Clash Report

"We will not provide any more weapons and ammunition from the Bulgarian Army's stocks," Radev told reporters, according to the Bulgarian News Agency. He said that position had been clear since his government took office in May, and that in June the government announced it was ending transfers of armaments from the Bulgarian Army, saying Sofia had "already provided enough."

Deficit and reserves block new funding

Radev said Bulgaria cannot provide financial assistance in the current circumstances because it is under an EU excessive deficit procedure and faces problems with its financial reserves. "We have problems with the country's reserves. In this situation, we cannot provide financial assistance, but we are certainly not obstructing decisions by other member states," he said at a press conference in Dublin, according to Bulgarian National Television (BNT).

Source: Bulgarian National Television via Bytes Europe

"Whoever decides to help and invest financial resources in whatever they choose should do so. In this situation, we are not blocking anyone," Radev said. He had earlier pointed to the EU's 3 percent deficit limit: Bulgaria is running an excessive deficit and is being asked to stay within that limit, so it has no additional funds.

The comments came as EU leaders discussed a new loan to cover part of Ukraine's estimated €70 billion financing gap next year — yaani about 70 billion euros in new funding that Kyiv still needs for 2027 — after German Chancellor Friedrich Merz pressed every member state to contribute. Slovakia, the Czech Republic, Hungary and Bulgaria have already rejected tying that funding to approval of the EU's next long-term budget.

Army stocks are closed, industry sales are separate

Radev drew a sharp distinction between state stockpiles and commercial industry. "We are no longer supplying weapons or ammunition from the Bulgarian Armed Forces' stocks. I made this clear as soon as our government took office," he said. "Bulgarian defence industry companies sell their products not to Ukraine, but to their commercial partners in other countries. They do not sell them directly to Ukraine."

He told reporters that Bulgarian defence manufacturers posted very high export volumes in 2022 and 2023, but that those figures had since declined steadily. He attributed the drop to a shift in wartime demand, from ammunition produced in Bulgaria toward drones, and did not say commercial exports had stopped.

Any future money only for humanitarian work, Radev says

Bulgaria, he said, is prepared to discuss arrangements ensuring that any funds it might later contribute would go to humanitarian work, electricity supplies and medical assistance rather than weapons. If Sofia were to act as a guarantor, he would insist on mechanisms directing support to the Bulgarian community in Ukraine, which he described as the largest historical Bulgarian community among EU states there.

Radev said Bulgaria has never stopped supporting Ukraine in other ways: it provides assistance to thousands of Ukrainian families free of charge, supplies electricity and helps repair the power system and railway infrastructure. He repeated those points after meeting European Commission President Ursula von der Leyen in Varna earlier this week.

No Bulgarian troops for the Coalition of the Willing

Radev added that Bulgaria does not support the deployment of military units on Ukrainian territory as part of the Coalition of the Willing, and that the country's parliament has decided Bulgarian troops will not participate in such missions. A separate report of his Facebook statement said Bulgaria would also stay out of military exercises organised by the coalition, which he said undermine the unity of the EU and NATO.

Source: TASS via GeoXAxis

On peace talks, Radev said Bulgaria supports all efforts to achieve peace and welcomes the negotiations taking place with United States participation, arguing Washington has sufficient leverage to bring both sides to the negotiating table. "I do not accept the imposition of peace through a position of strength, because this would only lead to more casualties, more destruction and further escalation of the conflict, which is now a risk not only for Europe but for the entire world," he said.

Opposition attacks the Dublin stance

At home, opposition lawmakers attacked the Dublin stance. GERB-UDF lawmaker Daniel Mitov said Radev's explanations appeared directed at his "masters in the Kremlin." Democratic Bulgaria lawmaker Ivaylo Mirchev argued the reservations Bulgaria lodged to a French-led European security declaration reflected "fear of Moscow," while GERB leader Boyko Borissov asked whether Bulgaria had even signed the declaration.

What happens next turns on the EU's own money debate: leaders still have to agree how to cover Ukraine's 2027 financing gap, and whether the next long-term budget will be tied to that funding — a link Bulgaria, Slovakia, the Czech Republic and Hungary have already rejected. Sofia's position, as Radev restated it in Dublin, is that other member states may go ahead, but Bulgaria will neither pay nor send army weapons.