Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky arrived in Sofia today for an official visit with the main aim of discussing his country’s accession to NATO and the delivery of weapons, as Bulgaria is a major producer of military equipment.

“I will have in-depth talks with Prime Minister Nikolai Denkof, I will meet with President Rumen Radev, government officials, MPs, politicians and journalists,” Zelensky noted on his Telegram account.

Among the issues to be addressed are “defense support, (Ukraine’s) Euro-Atlantic integration, the NATO summit, security guarantees and the implementation of the Peace Formula (to end the war),” he added.

Bulgaria’s new government, which has openly expressed its support for Kiev, referred to Zelensky’s arrival in a brief statement.

The visit of the Ukrainian president to Bulgaria comes a month after the appointment of a liberal government under Denkov, which decided to change its stance towards Kiev after a series of caretaker governments opposed to providing military aid to Ukraine.

Bulgaria, a member of the EU and NATO, which is historically and culturally linked to Russia, is deeply divided over the issue.

In practice, however, Bulgaria’s defense industry has increased its production since the Russian invasion of Ukraine. Last year its exports reached an estimated 4 billion euros, triple the previous record in 2017.

Until now, the military equipment produced in Bulgaria reached Ukraine through third countries, a solution that was found at the beginning of the war by the then Bulgarian Prime Minister Kirill Petkov.

“Almost all (the military equipment) we received in the first days of the war came from our Bulgarian partners,” Zelensky’s adviser Mihail Podoliak told the Bulgarian Nova TV network recently.

For its part, Russia estimated that Zelensky’s visit to Bulgaria is indicative of Kiev’s desire to drag “more countries” into the conflict.

“The Kiev regime is doing everything it can to drag (…) more countries into this conflict. Many countries have plunged headlong into this conflict, directly or indirectly. We will discuss the issue with the Bulgarians,” Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov said.