Prime Minister Rumen Radev has sent an open address to the political groups in the European Parliament after the chamber adopted a resolution criticising his government for a weak diplomatic reaction to Russia over attacks in the Black Sea. The text passed with 432 votes in favour, 52 against and 88 abstentions.
The resolution says the European Parliament considers Russia responsible for attacks on commercial ships and for the escalation of the war against Ukraine in the Black Sea. Eight Bulgarian members signed it: Andrey Kovachev, Andrey Novakov, Eva Maydell, Emil Radev and Ilia Lazarov of GERB-SDS, Ilhan Kyuchyuk and Taner Kabilov of DPS, and Hristo Petrov, known as Itso Hazarta, of PP. A Council of Ministers press release also named Radan Kanev among the sponsors, but a check by 24 Chasa found that he did not take part in the vote, while Kabilov and Petrov supported the text.
Radev said it was absurd for MEPs to urge Bulgaria to join NATO's anti-drone initiative when the defence minister had already announced that decision. He added that the initiative was announced in February 2025 and that the governments of the Bulgarian MEPs now tabling such texts had done nothing to bring the country into it. He said the government would not accept MEPs dictating, in a lecturing tone, which sovereign decisions it should take.
He said that, while the government was focused on critical security issues, the Parliament was being used by Bulgarian MEPs with limited political legitimacy at home for a doomed national election campaign. He said unfounded and manipulative insinuations aimed at the Bulgarian government had been added at the last moment, and that the resolution had no legal value. He found it telling and sad that the sponsors included those Bulgarian names.
Speaking for the government, Radev expressed firm disagreement and bewilderment at the last-minute insertion of point 6, formally proposed by the Greens, into the Black Sea resolution. That point alleges a weak diplomatic response and reaction toward Russia and a lack of concrete action. He said earlier points had given a positive assessment of Bulgaria's rapid rescue of the crews of the struck ships, and that point 6 rejected that assessment and the document's purpose of expressing solidarity with both Bulgaria and Romania.
He told MEPs from other EU member states that Bulgaria was investigating the attacks and continuing work with NATO and the EU to establish who carried them out. He said the government had always regarded the European Parliament as a respected institution meant to strengthen pro-European consensus in societies, rather than to create ground for manipulation and division.
Radev listed steps already taken. Immediately after the first attacks, the government appealed to NATO Secretary General Mark Rutte, European Commission President Ursula von der Leyen and European Council President Antonio Costa for joint efforts to stop attacks on commercial ships in the Black Sea. On 13 October 2026, the day two commercial ships were again attacked near Bulgarian territorial waters, he summoned Russian ambassador Eleonora Mitrofanova and told her the attacks were unacceptable and that their logic pointed toward the Russian side.
He said Bulgaria was the first country to join the multinational European Sky Shield initiative in 2022, under the caretaker government appointed by President Radev. At the European Council on 15–16 October he held a trilateral meeting with Rutte and Romanian President Nicușor Dan, and at the Council he proposed a moratorium to stop attacks on commercial shipping in the Black Sea.
Bulgaria is taking large-scale measures to strengthen Black Sea security after drone attacks on commercial ships near its territorial waters, including preventive protection of sovereign maritime areas and tighter control and surveillance by air and sea. Additional air patrols are under way, with Bulgarian Air Force crews of F-16, MiG-29, Su-25 and L-39 aircraft flying surveillance, patrol and reconnaissance over Bulgarian territorial waters. Three unmanned surveillance systems with reconnaissance capability have also been deployed in the Black Sea.
Surveillance is being reinforced with NATO allies. At an extraordinary North Atlantic Council meeting on 20 October 2026, all allies expressed solidarity and readiness to support Bulgaria and Romania, and sent extra forces and means for surveillance and reconnaissance, including additional maritime patrol aircraft, radar systems and drones. In the first hours after the decision, an allied Boeing P-8A Poseidon reconnaissance aircraft arrived in Bulgaria and is patrolling the western Black Sea.
The joint mission of Bulgaria, Turkey and Romania in the mine countermeasures group surveying sea lanes continues. It is the first joint initiative of its kind by the three NATO coastal states, aimed at keeping shipping safe from floating mines. Despite bad weather, one of the drone-struck ships was towed to the port of Burgas for a detailed investigation. At the government's invitation, an international expert team with high-technology equipment arrived to establish the type of drones used.
Radev wrote that accusations over the attacks on commercial ships in Bulgaria's exclusive economic zone in the Black Sea must rest on categorical facts, not on hypotheses.