“It looks obvious that Russia will win this war, but it will be hard-pressed to win peace. You cannot win with aggression,” said Bulgarian President Rumen Radev after the meeting of the Bucharest 9 (the Eastern European NATO members – Poland, Romania, Estonia, Lithuania, Latvia, Slovakia, Hungary, Bulgaria and Czechia.)

President Rumen Radev stated further that at this time there is no direct military threat to the security of Bulgaria, but that the security environment in Europe could change very quickly.

“That is why there are jet fighters for joint air policing of Bulgaria’s airspace, fighters from the Netherlands will be coming in April and May,” Rumen Radev added.

A virtual NATO summit was held earlier today, chaired by Secretary General Jens Stoltenberg, at which it was made clear that NATO will deploy more forces in Eastern Europe, and that additional weapons would be sent, including air defence systems.

After the meeting in Poland, the Bulgarian head of state stressed that he is monitoring the evacuation of Bulgarian citizens from Ukraine. According to him, the first two buses with more than 80 Bulgarians have arrived from Odessa, and another 4 Bulgarian buses have already crossed the Ukrainian border in the direction of Kyiv.