Bulgaria will allow a plane carrying Vladimir Putin to fly through its airspace to facilitate a planned meeting between the Russian leader and Donald Trump in Budapest later this month.
The country’s foreign minister, Georg Georgiev, said this on Monday, Ukrinform reports, citing Euractiv.
“When efforts are made to achieve peace, if the condition for this is to have such a meeting, it is most logical that such a meeting should be mediated in [all] possible ways. How is it proposed to hold the meeting if one of the participants cannot get to it?” Georgiev told journalists on the sidelines of the EU Foreign Affairs Council in Luxembourg.
He confirmed, however, that no request has yet been made by Moscow to allow Putin’s aircraft to pass over the Black Sea nation.
Bulgaria does not share a border with Hungary. However, Hungary and Bulgaria both border Serbia, which has strong historic links with Moscow. Passing through Bulgaria on his way to Budapest would cut Putin’s flight time considerably.
The only other route that does not involve flying over EU or Ukrainian airspace involves flying over the Mediterranean, and then passing over Montenegro or Albania before reaching Budapest via Serbia.
The EU’s top diplomat, Kaja Kallas, and many Eastern EU countries have criticized the scheduled meeting for excluding Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky. However, ministers from many Western EU member states, including the Netherlands, Germany, and France, have expressed tentative support for the meeting, which would be the first in-person summit between Trump and Putin since they met in Alaska in August.
Bulgaria and Hungary are currently both members of the International Criminal Court, which has issued an arrest warrant for Putin for his involvement in the deportation of Ukrainian children during the war. Hungary, however, announced its withdrawal from the ICC in April this year. Its withdrawal will become legally effective from June 2026.
Photo: unsplash