Bulgaria overrides presidential veto to provide Ukraine with armoured personnel carriers

The Bulgarian Parliament overrode President Rumen Radev's veto of the agreement to supply armoured personnel carriers to Ukraine on Friday.

Source: European Pravda with reference to BTA

Details: For the second time, 162 Bulgarian MPs voted in favour of the bill on ratification of the agreement, while 55 voted against it.

Pro-Russian representatives criticised the intention to send armoured vehicles to Ukraine, repeating the president's statement that the APCs could be used to protect the Bulgarian border.

However, the GERB party said that Bulgaria was protecting its national interests by helping Ukraine.

Reports also say that during the consideration of the bill, there was a scuffle between MPs.

On Monday, Bulgarian President Rumen Radev vetoed a bill passed by parliament to ratify an agreement with Ukraine to supply armoured personnel carriers to Kyiv.

Radev justified his decision by saying that "the MPs were not sufficiently familiar with the specific terms of the supply".

Reminder:

• On 22 November, Bulgaria's National Assembly ratified an intergovernmental agreement between Sofia and Kyiv, which provides for the supply of 100 written off armoured personnel carriers of the Ministry of Internal Affairs of Bulgaria to Ukraine.
• The agreement was made back in July of this year, signed in Sofia in August and on 13 November in Ukraine. 
• Since it concerns military and technical cooperation, it must be additionally ratified by the Bulgarian Parliament.

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