Teodora Genchovska

Ukrainian Foreign Minister Dmytro Kuleba said he had come to Bulgaria to thank Bulgarians and the government for accepting Ukrainian refugees.

Ukrainian Foreign Minister Dmytro Kuleba arrived in Bulgaria by car. The Council of Ministers has confirmed that he will visit Bulgaria today. At 20:30 p.m. last night the first diplomat of Kyiv left the Bulgarian-Romanian border for Sofia.

Ukrainian guards on an artillery patrol boat in Mariupol in January 2019. Photo: EPA-EFE/SERGEY VAGANOV

Fourteen Bulgarian seamen and one Ukrainian who have been evacuated from a ship that was stranded in embattled Mariupol, arrived on Monday in the Bulgarian city of Varna, the authorities said.

Saturday's opening of a Bulgarian cultural club in the North Macedonia town of Bitola named after Ivan Mihailov, a controversial 20th Century nationalist movement leader who became a Nazi collaborator, has been criticised as a threat to ongoing attempts to achieve a breakthrough in the two countries' dispute over history.

The sailors from the ship "Tsarevna" arrived in their homeland. They were picked up by a government plane. The machine landed at Varna Airport.

14 Bulgarian citizens and one citizen of Ukraine, a graduate of the Bulgarian Naval School, were evacuated from the port of Mariupol.

"The Bulgarian community in the Republic of North Macedonia is a real priority," said Prime Minister Kiril Petkov at a meeting at the Consulate General of Bulgaria in Bitola, BTA reported.

He called for hard work on both sides of the border to overcome all problems and make the Balkans a prosperous region.

"Individual criteria and commitment to results, not deadlines, are key for Bulgaria regarding the European integration of the Republic of North Macedonia." This was stated by the Bulgarian Foreign Minister Teodora Genchovska to her Italian counterpart Luigi Di Maio in Rome.

Foreign Minister Teodora Genchovska told media on Tuesday evening that "Bulgaria's position remains unchanged" and that Sofia will continue to block the start of North Macedonia's EU accession talks until its demands are met.

Her comments came in response to Bulgaria media citing German Foreign Affairs Minister Annalena Baerbock that Genchovska had promised the veto will be lifted.

"Bulgaria to clear the problematic issues related to Skopje, so that North Macedonia and Albania can start membership negotiations in the first half of the year."

This was called for by German Foreign Minister Annalena Baerbock after the meeting of European Union foreign ministers last night in Luxembourg.

EU foreign ministers are discussing a sixth package of sanctions against Russia in Luxembourg today, including an embargo on oil and gas imports. Bulgaria is represented by Foreign Minister Teodora Genchovska.