Bulgaria sent the first donated armored personnel carriers to Ukraine

3 February, 2024 BTR-60 of the Bulgarian Ministry of Emergency Situations that is being transferred to Ukraine. February 2024. Bulgaria.

Photo credits: Todor Tagarev Bulgaria has launched an operation of sending to Ukraine 100 armored personnel carriers from the depots of the Ministry of the Interior. Bulgarian Defense Minister Todor Tagarev reported on this.

"The operation is ongoing. The Ministry of Defense supports the process of providing Ukraine with APCs of the Ministry of the Interior," Todor Tagarev wrote. He did not provide any other details, but published photos of armored personnel carriers painted in police colors and being loaded onto car trawls.

Last month, Todor Tagarev claimed that the transportation of APCs would be expensive, so the Bulgarian government was wondering who would pay for the delivery of APCs to Ukraine donated as part of military assistance.

BTR-60 of the Bulgarian Ministry of Emergency Situations that is being transferred to Ukraine. February 2024. Bulgaria.

Photo credits: Todor Tagarev

"It is already clear who will load them and where they will go. Again, this is a very serious logistics operation," the Minister said. In November 2023, the Bulgarian parliament ratified an agreement between the Bulgarian Interior Ministry and the Ukrainian Defense Ministry on the transfer of 100 armored personnel carriers.

At the same time, Bulgaria claimed that even without the ratification of the agreement, it was possible to transfer the first APCs last fall. It regards the transfer of outdated Soviet-era BTR-60 armored personnel carriers, which began to be manufactured in the 1960s. These APCs have been in the inventory of the Bulgarian Ministry of the Interior since the 1980s.

BTR-60 of the Bulgarian Ministry of Emergency Situations that is being transferred to Ukraine.

February 2024. Bulgaria. Photo credits: Todor Tagarev

This is the first time that Bulgaria has handed over armored vehicles to Kyiv directly, and not through intermediaries, as it had done before.

Last year, the U.S.

Department of State approved the possible sale of Stryker armored personnel carriers for Bulgaria.