Bulgaria to Gain Over €500 Million from Military Aid to Ukraine

SOFIA - Bulgaria expects €500 million in revenue from military aid to Ukraine over the past three years, after Kyiv’s biggest donors agreed to compensate Sofia generously.

Military revenues are particularly important for Bulgaria, which is trying to reduce its deficit to 3% of GDP in order to join the eurozone on 1 January 2026. The government announced that it had received €174 million from Denmark as part of two contracts to send military aid to Ukraine, which will offset the country’s budget deficit.

The authorities in Sofia expect at least another €300 million from the United States and the European Commission as compensation for sending state-owned military equipment to Kyiv.

“By helping Ukraine, we are actually helping ourselves,” said Defence Minister Atanas Zapryanov.

Bulgaria is sending its old military equipment, manufactured to Soviet standards, to Ukraine, and with the money it receives from NATO allies and the EU, it can invest in the purchase of new Western weapons.

“The military aid we provide is no longer necessary for the Bulgarian army. We are sending everything that is not included in the army’s equipment for peace and wartime,” the minister said.

He said that Bulgaria had so far sent six packages of military aid to Ukraine, including ammunition, armoured vehicles and malfunctioning air defence missiles to be used as spare parts. The government is keeping secret what exactly is being sent to Kyiv, but it is known that the main aid is ammunition, as well as missiles for the key S-300 air defence missile systems.

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In 2024, Bulgaria sent 150 armoured vehicles and Soviet-made Gvozdika self-propelled howitzers.

The Balkan country is one of the largest owners and producers of Soviet-style equipment needed by the Ukrainian army. And while Bulgarian military factories are gradually beginning to produce NATO-standard ammunition, large parts of the industry still produce Soviet-style weapons, which are exported to Asia, Africa, the Middle East and, in the last three years, mainly to Ukraine.

Data for 2023 show that the country’s military factories and arms dealers have a turnover of €3.2 billion, making Bulgaria a medium-sized arms exporter by global standards.

Despite the benefits for the Bulgarian army, which gets good money for old weapons, pro-Russian forces in the country remain opposed to military aid to Ukraine. The most vocal opponents are President Rumen Radev, the pro-Russian Bulgarian Socialist Party, which is part of the ruling coalition, and the large pro-Kremlin party Vazrazhdane, a partner of the German far-right AfD in the European Parliament.

Bulgaria receives several hundred millions for “old and rusty weapons”, commented Ivaylo Mirchev, an MP from the pro-European Democratic Bulgaria party.