President Radev: Currently, there is no direct military threat to Bulgaria

Although there is currently no direct military threat to the country's security, risks are being assessed and measures are being identified to minimise them. Bulgaria is working hard to ensure its security, Bulgaria’s President Rumen Radev said after the nearly three-hour-long consultative meeting on September 23.

Radev also said that the Russian President's decisions on partial mobilisation will escalate the conflict and is a security threat with hardly foreseeable consequences. He stressed that referendums in a combat zone are a legal absurdity and Bulgaria will not recognise them.

Here is what else President Radev said:

"At today's consultative meeting, we discussed the risks for Bulgaria and the threats posed by the potential risk of an escalation of the war in Ukraine.

In the first hours of the war, I convened a consultative meeting with the state leadership and here in this room we condemned Russian aggression against Ukraine as categorically unacceptable. From the first day of this war, I have called for an end to hostilities and for a peaceful settlement of the conflict by means of diplomacy. Unfortunately, the desire for military victory at any cost is silencing calls for peace. Reason is giving way to weapons.

The Russian President's decision on partial mobilisation will increase the intensity of the fighting, escalate the conflict and is a security threat with consequences that are difficult to predict. It is unacceptable that three decades after the end of the Cold War, the nuclear card is being played again. However absurd this threat may sound, it cannot be ignored.

Referenda in a combat zone where shells are falling at the ballot box are a legal absurdity and Bulgaria will not recognise them.

Alongside the escalation of the conflict, the risks to our region, to Europe and to the world are growing. Although there is currently no direct military threat to the country's security, these risks are being assessed and measures are being identified to minimise them. Bulgaria is working hard to ensure its security by strengthening its national defence capacity and fulfilling its commitments in the Alliance's collective security system," the President further said.

Bulgaria supports the Union's sanctions regime, he added.

Radev said the risks of this war are not limited to military security. Escalations of the conflict could affect not only gas supplies, but also oil supplies and fuel production in the country, the operation of large power plants, and supplies by sea. And all this means a further deepening of the economic and social crisis, he said.

He said the caretaker government was making every effort to mitigate the effect of these crises in its time and regulatory frameworks, which often lag behind the dynamics of the processes due to the lack of a functioning parliament. It is therefore critical that Bulgaria has a parliament and a sustainable regular government.

He called on the parties to unite in the face of the crisis, the risks and the threats, to get citizens to vote so that there is a turnout that will give sufficient legitimacy to the next parliament.

The consultative meeting with the President was attended by caretaker Prime Minister Galab Donev; Deputy Prime Minister for Economic Policies and Caretaker Minister of Transport and Communications Hristo Alexiev; Deputy Prime Minister for Public Order and Security and Caretaker Minister of the Interior Ivan Demerdzhiev; Deputy Prime Minister for Social Policies and Caretaker Minister of Labour and Social Policy Lazar Lazarov; Minister of Defence Dimitar Stoyanov; Minister of Energy Rosen Hristov; Minister of Economy and Industry Nikola Stoyanov, Deputy Minister of Foreign Affairs Velislava Petrova.

The other participants in the meeting were Deputy Chief of Defence Lieutenant General Dimitar Iliev; Deputy Secretary General of the Ministry of Interior Stanimir Stanev; Chairman of the State Agency for National Security, Plamen Tonchev; Deputy Chairman of the State Agency for Intelligence Assen Tutekov and Director of the Military Intelligence Service Brigadier General Venelin Venev.

Earlier today, caretaker Defence Minister Dimitar Stoyanov commented that the Bulgarian army is on constant combat readiness and surveillance and intelligence in the eastern part of the country has been strengthened.

Bulgaria is stepping up surveillance of the eastern border, the referendums organised by Russia will not be recognised.

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