Bulgaria has pulled out of the Coalition of the Willing, the group of nations backing Ukraine against Russian aggression, Bloomberg reported. Pro-Russian Prime Minister Rumen Radev announced the exit on 14 July, a day after skipping the coalition's Paris summit. The move is the latest in a string of anti-Ukrainian steps Sofia has taken since Radev took office in May.
"Not prolonging it by military means"
Radev told reporters on 14 July that Bulgaria rejects the coalition's core purpose.
"We're not participating in a coalition that insists on continuing financial and military aid to Ukraine. The solution to this conflict is not in prolonging it by military means, but in a strong diplomatic mission that will finally put an end to the escalation," he stated.
Bulgaria attended previous coalition meetings but sent no representative to the Paris gathering. The withdrawal distances the Balkan country further from the EU majority standing behind Kyiv. Radev has repeatedly rejected accusations of siding with Russia, claiming he favors "pragmatic" relations with the Kremlin.
A pattern two months in the making
The coalition exit caps a rapid reversal of Bulgarian policy. Radev, a former president who called occupied Crimea Russian, became Prime Minister in May after his party won the country's eighth election in five years. He promptly halted government-supplied military aid to Kyiv, though commercial arms sales continue.
Radev has also promised to block EU sanctions moves against two prominent Russians: Patriarch Kirill, the head of the Russian Orthodox Church, and oligarch Vagit Alekperov, the founder of oil giant Lukoil.
