Bulgaria won't take part in the new 70 billion euros for Ukraine: is Sofia a step closer to Budapest?

Bulgaria will not take part in the EU's new financial aid for Ukraine. Prime Minister Rumen Radev announced it, and without much diplomatic wrapping: "How does that look in relation to everything happening in Europe? Bulgaria cannot in any way take part in those 70 billion," Radev told reporters in the small town of Tvarditsa.

The figure he is reacting to is fresh. At the recent European summit, Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky asked the EU for an additional 70 billion euros next year to defend against the Russian invasion.

Radev recalled that last year the EU approved 90 billion euros for Ukraine to cover costs in 2026 and 2027. Back then three member states - Hungary, Czechia and Slovakia - secured an exemption from the loan. Bulgaria took part then. Now it is switching sides.

The reasoning will sound familiar to anyone who has listened to Budapest and Bratislava: the war is draining European economies, creating social tensions and political instability, so it should end as soon as possible. "The result will not be achieved by military means," said Radev - a man who was the country's president from 2017 until his resignation in January 2026, and is now prime minister.

For the Balkans, this is not small news. Bulgaria is a member of the EU and NATO, a Black Sea state on the Alliance's eastern flank, and has so far followed the European line on Ukraine. When Sofia too starts counting what solidarity costs, the question is how much longer the Union's unity will hold - and who will be the next to say "we can't".

For Skopje, whose European path has for years been blocked by none other than Sofia in the name of European values, the picture is at least instructive. European values, it turns out, apply until the bill arrives.