Bulgarian government will provide at once 100 armored personnel carriers to the Armed Forces of Ukraine. This is the first officially announced provision of heavy equipment aid to Ukraine from Bulgaria, which comes two weeks after the visit of Ukrainian President Zelensky to Sofia.
As Defense Express earlier noted, the Soviet-type BTR vehicles come from the arsenals of the Bulgarian Army. They barely saw any usage and collected dust at the stocks of the internal affairs ministry because it took too many resources to keep them well-maintained.
Read more: Bulgarian Sent the Largest One-time Package of Military Aid for Ukraine
Some sources suggest that the exact type of armored personnel carrier donated by Bulgaria is the BTR-60. If true, this could mean another challenge on top of the need to properly restore the vehicles. The BTR-60 is equipped with two GAZ-40P gasoline engines, each having an output of only 90 hp.
For comparison, most Ukrainian Soviet-type APCs have engines of 240-260 hp, the combined power of the Bulgarian vehicle is closer to the one that propels an American HMMWV. This feature would strain the mobility of units using this equipment.
On the flip side, Bulgarian officials did not specify when the equipment will be delivered to the Ukrainian Armed Forces. Therefore, there is a possibility that the BTR-60s will be upgraded in Bulgaria before departing. Especially since the local defense industry already has the modernization standard called BTR-60PB-MD1 with diesel engines and better sighting systems.
If we proceed from the data provided in The Military Balance 2023, Bulgaria as of beginning this year had 120 APCs overall, including 100 MT-LB multipurpose vehicles and 20 operational BTR-60s. With that in mind, a donation of 100 armored personnel carriers is quite a significant contribution on the part of Bulgaria.
That is not to mention that each vehicle provided by Ukraine's partners is extremely valuable in such a high-intensity war as unfolds against the russians invasion forces in Ukraine.
Read more: More Than 30% of Ammunition and Fuel for Ukraine Came From the Country No One Expected
