{"id":87888,"date":"2025-05-09T17:14:12","date_gmt":"2025-05-09T17:14:12","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/87888\/"},"modified":"2025-05-09T17:14:12","modified_gmt":"2025-05-09T17:14:12","slug":"eu-support-for-ukraine-is-a-doomed-cause-bulgarias-president-says-politico","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/87888\/","title":{"rendered":"EU support for Ukraine is a \u2018doomed cause,\u2019 Bulgaria\u2019s president says \u2013 POLITICO"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>\u201cThe exact opposite is happening every day \u2014 even more victims, even more destruction, even more lost territories,\u201d he said. \u201cIs Europe afraid of the return of peace? Because the return of peace also means returning public attention to the crises that are smoldering within our countries and societies.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>Radev decided to deliver his criticism of the EU\u2019s aid to Ukraine on the very day that Russian President Vladimir Putin celebrates the Victory Day parade in Moscow. <\/p>\n<p>Although the Bulgarian presidency is largely a ceremonial role, Radev has become an unusually  powerful figure due to the country\u2019s deadlocked parliament, which has seen Bulgarians head to the polls seven times in the last four years and enhanced his own profile.<\/p>\n<p>Radev has parroted Kremlin talking points before, deriding the prospect of Ukraine\u2019s victory over Russia <a href=\"https:\/\/www.pravda.com.ua\/eng\/news\/2024\/05\/20\/7456583\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">as \u201cimpossible\u201d<\/a> last May, and in January <a href=\"https:\/\/www.euractiv.com\/section\/politics\/news\/bulgarian-president-blames-eu-for-ukrainian-death-in-counter-offensives\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">blamed European leaders<\/a> for \u201chundreds of thousands of victims\u201d in Ukraine by encouraging Kyiv\u2019s counteroffensive.<\/p>\n<p>His Kremlin sympathies earned him an acid-tongued <a href=\"https:\/\/www.politico.eu\/article\/ukrainian-president-volodymyr-zelenskyy-mauls-bulgarian-president-rumen-radev-over-opposition-to-arming-ukraine\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">rebuke from Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy<\/a> during a televised meeting between the two leaders in 2023 at the presidential palace in Sofia.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cGod forbid some tragedy should befall you and you should be in my place \u2026 You would say: Putin, please grab Bulgarian territory?\u201d Zelenskyy asked mockingly, after which a chastened Radev asked the cameras to leave the room.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"\u201cThe exact opposite is happening every day \u2014 even more victims, even more destruction, even more lost territories,\u201d&hellip;\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":87889,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[7654],"tags":[13489,2000,299,660,2597,5111,41942,332,657,2601,771,335,1116],"class_list":{"0":"post-87888","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-ukraine","8":"tag-bulgaria","9":"tag-eu","10":"tag-europe","11":"tag-kremlin","12":"tag-military","13":"tag-parliament","14":"tag-rumen-radev","15":"tag-russia","16":"tag-ukraine","17":"tag-volodymyr-zelenskyy","18":"tag-war","19":"tag-war-in-ukraine","20":"tag-weapons"},"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/pubeurope.com\/@uk\/114479003519701176","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/87888","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=87888"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/87888\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/87889"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=87888"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=87888"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=87888"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}