Bulgarian press: Bulgaria sent rusty ammunition to Ukraine. The Ukrainians sent her back

The Bulgarian government allegedly tried, in May, to send to Ukraine, through Romania, old, withdrawn ammunition, manufactured in Belarus during the Soviet period, but Kiev was dissatisfied with the advanced state of degradation of the armament and sent it back, shows a survey carried out by the Bulgarian publication Bivol.bg, taken over by G4Media.ro.

It is about Grad missiles and artillery cartridges, worth about 200 million dollars.

The arrangements for the export of arms to Ukraine through Romania were made during the official visit to Romania of Prime Minister Kiril Petkov on April 29, a day after she had been to Kyiv. It would have been about the export of about 50,000 artillery rockets and over 5 million cartridges for machine guns, with an estimated value of 200 million dollars.

The Bulgarian company Alguns EOOD bought the missiles – manufactured in the 1980s – in Belarus and sent them to RomArm, under the administration of the Romanian Ministry of Economy, under this agreement which stipulated that the ammunition would then be sent immediately to Ukraine.

According to the Bulgarian publication, the transaction was planned to take place in the following way: the Bulgarian company Alguns sold the ammunition to the Romanian national defense company CN Romarm SA, the latter then resold it to its own subsidiary Nanotech Defense SRL, which signed a contract directly with The Ukrainian Ministry of Defense, i.e. the final recipient. Nanotech acted as RomArm’s sales representative in Ukraine.

Bucharest confirms that the deal took place

Bivol.bg sent an official letter to the Romanian Minister of Economy, Florin Spătaru, who forwarded the questions to the national defense company Romarm SA “Romarm has an active purchase contract with the Bulgarian company Alguns”, according to the reply Bivol received from Gabriel Țuțu, the general director of the Romanian company. “The contract and its subsequent implementation are in accordance with the legislation in the field”, said the Romanian general director. It declined to provide more information, stressing that disclosing details of “products, delivery and prices would be contrary to the principles of market competition, protected by law.”

Ukraine sent the weapons back to Romania

However, when Kiev received the ammunition and found out its condition, it sent it back to Romania, because the projectiles were not operable in battle, writes the quoted source. When Ukraine sent the goods back, the entire shipment went through Romania again and back to the Bulgarian company Alguns.

“According to our sources, on the day the contract was agreed, the Bulgarian company Alguns received an advance of 36 million dollars, transferred from a bank account in Great Britain – the country that gives Ukraine the second largest amount of aid military, after the US. The rest of the money was to be paid as soon as the weapons reached their destination. But when they were received in Ukraine, their true condition was revealed. The Ukrainian Ministry of Defense sent them back to Romania because they were not fit for combat use. It seems that, due to the emergency, the ammunition had not been examined and was in a bad condition,” claims Bivol.bg.

The same source also writes that the Romanian authorities were also dissatisfied with the state of the projectiles, because many were rusty, hit or deformed, and Bucharest, “protecting its good reputation”, sent them back.

Aided by Bulgaria’s Ministry of Economy and Industry, the Alguns company then attempted to repair the ammunition through so-called “re-certification” at the state-owned Bulgarian arms manufacturer VMZ. Here, other complications intervened with internal political implications in Bulgaria.

The case risks turning into a diplomatic scandal

On the other hand, “the case is about to turn into a diplomatic scandal”, according to Bivol.bg, in the context in which Belarus suspects that a license issued by Minsk was falsified in order to be able to export to Ukraine . The Embassy of Belarus in Sofia sent an official letter to the Bulgarian authorities regarding the fraud that had been used to export weapons manufactured in their country without their consent, writes Bivol.bg.

According to some sources, Prime Minister Kiril Petkov, Deputy Prime Minister Kornelia Ninova and their heads of office – Lena Borislavova and Kaloyan Metodiev were under pressure from two sides – because of their unfulfilled commitments to Ukraine, in which Romania was also involved , but also from Belarus, angry at the attempt to hand over their weapons to a country with which they are in unfriendly relations.

Bivol.bg also writes, citing sources, that “at least 15 million (dollars – no) were intended as an unofficial commission for civil servants (Bivol.bg does not specify clearly whether it is about civil servants from Romania or Bulgaria or from both countries ), with five million in advance”, following this business.

Read also: The Ukrainians publish images of Romanian ammunition. Minister of Economy: We have no information that that ammunition was delivered from Romania

Editor: Luana Pavaluca