“Russia is a Black Sea country and it is waging a war. For the time being the military exercise inside Bulgaria’s economic zone, announced by Moscow, is not a problem for the transport corridors but it will become a problem if we want to send a ship out to explore the offshore gas fields,” Minister of Defence Todor Tagarev said in an interview with bTV.

• Russia to conduct naval exercises in part of Bulgaria's exclusive economic zone
• Russia extends temporary warning zone in the Black Sea

At the end of July, Russia declared a warning zone for exercises affecting Bulgaria’s exclusive economic zone, and the Bulgarian Ministry of Defence reacted saying this was not good practice. “Bulgaria expects to be compensated for the latest military aid it sent Ukraine by 2025, under the European Peace Facility, Minister Tagarev stated. “We are helping Ukraine purely pragmatically, but also for the sake of our own security,” Todor Tagarev added.

Meanwhile, The Financial Times wrote that the US had already struck deals with Bulgaria and South Korea to supply 155-mm calibre shells to Ukraine.