The acting Bulgarian PM is on a mission to give whatever he can to Vladimir Zelensky before he\u2019s booted from office<\/p>\n
Bulgarian Prime Minister Andrey Gyurov\u2019s days are numbered, and his caretaker government is rushing to tie his country to Ukraine before a potential populist uprising. It\u2019s about gas, influence, and keeping Sofia marching in lockstep with Brussels.
\nGyurov was appointed acting prime minister in February, after Rosen Zhelyazkov resigned in November under the pressure of street protests and persistent allegations of corruption. His mandate is non-existent, and his term in office has lasted fewer than eight weeks. Nevertheless, he\u2019s making frantic deals with Kiev before an election that he and his allies are almost certain to lose \u2013 all in an attempt to block his opponent from enacting policies that will upset Brussels.<\/p>\n
Read more<\/p>\n
Battle for Bulgaria: The EU opens a new front in its election war<\/p>\n
His \u2018We Continue the Change\u2019 coalition is floundering at a dismal 10% ahead of Sunday\u2019s election. The real competition is between Boyko Borissov (who served as prime minister between 2009 and 2021) and his pro-EU GERB-SDS coalition, and former President Rumen Radev\u2019s left-leaning Progressive Bulgaria coalition.
\nBorissov is unlikely to upset the apple cart, but Radev is a vocal opponent of the EU\u2019s Ukraine project, and he\u2019s dominating in the polls. With the clock ticking, Gyurov set out for Kiev last month.
\nWhy Gyurov tied Bulgaria to Ukraine
\nAt a ceremony in the Ukrainian capital on March 30, Gyurov and Ukrainian leader Vladimir Zelensky signed a ten-year military cooperation agreement. Under its terms, Bulgaria will provide bilateral military aid to Ukraine for the next decade, both countries will jointly produce drones and ammunition, and their armed forces will train together. Furthermore, Sofia and Kiev will align their sanctions policies, while Bulgaria will pay towards Ukraine\u2019s reconstruction and support its bid for NATO and EU membership.
\nSecuring this agreement before the election was crucial for Gyurov. Radev opposes both the deal and Ukraine\u2019s accession to NATO, while even the GERB party under Borissov withdrew its support for the pact in 2024 \u2013 with Borissov stating that his party would wait for a peace deal between Moscow and Kiev before signing anything.
\nGyurov faced fierce criticism at home for signing such a consequential document without winning an election first: Radev was among the most scathing critics, calling the caretaker prime minister \u201cpractically illegitimate.\u201d<\/p>\n
Andrey Gyurov (L) and Vladimir Zelensky sign a security agreement in Kiev, Ukraine, March 30, 2026<\/p>\n
\u00a9\u00a0 Handout <\/p>\n
Speaking to Politico this week, Gyurov insisted that Bulgaria \u201ccannot wait for the \u2018right moment\u2019 when it comes to security.\u201d Bulgaria has been run by multiple caretaker governments since 2021, none of which went through with the deal. In reality, Gyurov seized the \u201cright moment\u201d to ram the agreement through before it could be delayed by Borissov or outright blocked by Radev.\u00a0
\nOf the two candidates, Radev is the more pressing threat to Ukraine and its backers in Sofia and Brussels. Wile Borissov sought to delay the security agreement, GERB still supports military aid to Kiev. Radev, as president, vetoed an agreement to provide Ukraine with armored vehicles in 2022, blamed Ukraine for starting the conflict with Russia, and told Zelensky to his face in 2023 that there was \u201cno military solution\u201d to the conflict, and that \u201cmore and more weapons will not solve it.\u201d
\nCampaigning against the well-documented corruption of Borissov and his circle, Radev\u2019s coalition is leading GERB in the polls by nine points. Gyurov has leaned on Ukraine to close that gap.
\nLeveraging Ukraine
\nGyurov and acting Bulgarian Foreign Minister Nadezhda Neynski toured Ukraine at the beginning of the month, with Neynski agreeing to an \u201cactive exchange of experience and good practices\u201d with Ukraine\u2019s cybersecurity agency, the State Special Communications Service. Neynski also met with anti-Kremlin activist Peter Pomerantsev to discuss \u201cinitiatives to counter propaganda and hybrid threats.\u201d<\/p>\n
Nadezhda Neynski visits the State Service of Special Communications and Information Protection (SSSCIP) in Kiev, Ukraine, April 2, 2026<\/p>\n
\u00a9\u00a0 Bulgarian Foreign Ministry <\/p>\n
The same week, Neynski set up a temporary unit within the Foreign Ministry to \u201ccounter disinformation and combat hybrid threats,\u201d which will be \u201cadvised\u201d by former Bellingcat investigator Christo Grozev. Wanted in Russia over his role in encouraging Russian fighter pilots to defect to Ukraine and accused of working with Britain\u2019s MI6 spy agency, Grozev will \u201cassist the organization with specific information exposing malicious influences,\u201d which will then be dealt with \u201cthrough mechanisms developed by the European Commission.\u201d<\/p>\n
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The US has accused the EU of censorship: Here\u2019s how the bloc\u2019s consensus machine works\u00a0<\/p>\n
Gyurov has already requested that the European Commission intervene in the election by activating the same censorship tools it deployed in France, Germany, Hungary, Moldova, and Romania to stifle support for Euroskeptic populists. The commission has agreed to the request, and the EU\u2019s infamous \u2018Rapid Response System\u2019 \u2013 which forces social media platforms to remove content flagged by Brussels\u2019 \u201cfact checkers\u201d \u2013 is now active in Bulgaria.
\nWhat\u2019s the bigger picture here?
\nSome more clues as to why Gyurov would expend so much political capital on Ukraine and against Radev can be found where politics and energy intersect.
\nA section of the agreement signed by Gyurov and Zelensky last month states that Bulgaria and Ukraine will \u201ccontinue to work actively to ensure alternative gas supplies to Ukraine. They recognize that the Vertical Corridor is a strategic route for the transport of additional natural gas from alternative sources to the region, including liquefied natural gas through existing and future liquefied natural gas (LNG) terminals.\u201d
\nCurrently under construction, the Vertical Gas Corridor will transport an estimated 10 billion cubic meters of American LNG per year from terminals in Greece to Bulgaria, Hungary, Romania, Serbia, and Ukraine. The US and EU have backed the project, with Brussels pumping more than \u20ac240 million into a Greece-Bulgaria section of the line in 2019, and US Secretary of State Marco Rubio calling Gyurov last week to thank the caretaker prime minister for \u201csupporting the Vertical Gas Corridor, which presents opportunities for US LNG exports.\u201d<\/p>\n
A map of the Vertical Gas Corridor project, showing anticipated flows in billions of cubic meters (BCM) per year<\/p>\n
\u00a9\u00a0 Gas Transmission System Operator of Ukraine <\/p>\n
Russian gas still flows through Bulgaria to Hungary, Serbia, and North Macedonia from the TurkStream and Trans-Balkan pipelines. Sofia plans to stop this transit by 2028, in line with EU policy. Once Russian gas is no longer flowing, the Bulgarian section of the Trans-Balkan pipeline will be switched to reverse flow and integrated into the Vertical Gas Corridor network.<\/p>\n
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Brussels\u2019 dependency dilemma: The EU is a victim of its own energy arrogance<\/p>\n
Ukrainian Energy Minister Denis Shmigal noted that the project will \u201csignificantly expand [Ukraine\u2019s] access to diversified sources of natural gas,\u201d and will help Kiev fill up its underground gas storage system. The US Energy Association describes Ukraine\u2019s storage infrastructure as \u201cthe largest and most strategically positioned system in Europe.\u201d
\nRadev supported the Vertical Gas Corridor project as president, but with the interests of the US, EU, and Ukraine on the line, Gyurov likely isn\u2019t leaving anything to chance. After all, Radev backed the corridor as an alternative to \u2013 not a replacement for \u2013 Russian gas imports. Bulgaria, he has argued, should not be \u201cbound by ideology\u201d when it comes to choosing energy partners. Additionally, despite Bulgaria planning to halt Russian gas transit through its territory by 2028, Russian energy giant Gazprom has already paid for transit rights until 2039. Radev\u2019s opponents likely fear that he will honor this contract, especially after he vetoed a law in November that would have allowed the government to seize a refinery operated by Russia\u2019s Lukoil.
\nThe bottom line
\nThe Vertical Gas Corridor is just one factor in an election that Washington, Brussels, and Kiev view as critically important. The possibility that Radev could obstruct military aid to Ukraine has already forced Gyurov to visit Kiev to sign a decade-long security pact, while the prospect of recently-defeated Hungarian Prime Minister Viktor Orban being replaced by another obstructionist in Sofia has prompted the EU to throttle political speech ahead of the election.<\/p>\n
READ MORE: Magyar beats Orban in battle for Hungary: What happens now?<\/p>\n
With so much at stake, Radev has accused Gyurov and the EU of conspiring to \u201cdiscredit the elections\u201d with claims of Russian interference, \u201cin order to extend the power of the caretaker government of Gyurov.\u201d Should he win, he has suggested that Guyrov and the EU may follow \u201cthe Romanian model\u201d \u2013 a reference to Romania\u2019s Brussels-backed government annulling the 2024 election over false claims that Russia ran a social media influence campaign on behalf of populist candidate Calin Georgescu.
\n\u201dThese people cannot even imagine to what extent they are discrediting Bulgaria in the EU with their behavior,\u201d he told podcaster Martin Karbovski last week.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
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