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How dare you refer to Bulgaria's Household Revolution of the 20th Century as a mere "pepper roaster"?  It also does eggplants and other vaguely cylindrical vegetables.
This is the best tl;dr I could make, original reduced by 85%. (I'm a bot)


Bulgaria, one of the poorest EU members and long perceived as pro-Moscow, helped Ukraine survive Russia's early onslaught by secretly supplying it with large amounts of desperately needed diesel and ammunition, the politicians responsible have said.
Sofia did not supply Ukraine directly, but allowed Bulgarian intermediaries to sell to their counterparts in Ukraine or Nato member states, and kept open its air links with Poland and land routes via Romania and Hungary, Peskov told the paper.
They were especially sensitive since the fuel Bulgaria was shipping to Ukraine was produced from Russian crude oil, at a refinery near Burgas on the Black Sea operated by Russia's Lukoil.


Extended Summary | FAQ | Feedback | Top keywords: Ukraine^#1 Bulgaria^#2 supply^#3 Petkov^#4 Russia^#5 >


They were especially sensitive since the fuel Bulgaria was shipping to Ukraine was produced from Russian crude oil, at a refinery near Burgas on the Black Sea operated by Russia's Lukoil.

The funniest part if you ask me. >

Whole this war is filled with this shit. Russia is supplying Europe with gas through Ukraine and paying Ukraine for this. Madness. >

It's not that uncommon.
The USA carried on selling military vehicles to Nazi Germany for months after they declared war on them.  It takes time for all the gears in such big and complex economies to shift. >

Was that the US shipping vehicles to Nazi Germany, or are you confusing that with the Nazi operated German subsidiaries of the Big 3 producing vehicles in Germany. >

So Bulgaria purchased crude oil from Russia, processed it at its Lukoil-owned essentially Russian refinery and sent it to Ukraine.
Funny stuff. >

And they did it hidden away from their allied pro-Russia coalition lol >

Or so they claim. The "pro-Russian" (Russian subsidized) would get their funding suspended, if their boss found out they knew about it and didn't stop it. It's hard to hide such exports regardless. >

If anything can bring Europe together, is figthing against Russia, even secretly. >

Precisely. Russia is amazing at being able to mobilize vast swathes of diverse countries against it. I'm from a country bordering Russia, I don't want to dislike my neighbour, but the Kremlin's actions leave one little choice. >

At this point it's either hate Russia, or be genocided by them. >

I really hope the world ends by meteor strike and not a fucking race war. I just want to have a fuckin garden and raise my kids and the whole fuckin world is on fire. I don't get to know that my children get to even have a future because everyone is constantly threatening war instead of pooling resources and information. >

Despite all this, the world is a more peaceful place than it has ever been. Violent death is way down, and you and your kids never had a better chance to die of old age. >

Not when food becomes unavailable to common folk. >

Or drinkable water. >

I'm semi thankful I live near Superior, but I feel with rising ocean and red states going haywire the Midwest is going to be a refuge of sorts for a lot. The water is only going to amplify that. But at least ig lake Superior gets drained I can agate hunt easier right? Lol >

I feel ya.  I lived in Milwaukee for 30 years - my other half’s brother (and his two daughters & family’s) all moved from Kansas to MKE  like 10 years ago because of ‘global warming’.   I laughed when I heard him say that,  when he got done explaining he wanted his grandkids to be adults in a state that was not actively drying out - I got it.
The Great Lake states are going to be real sexy solely because of their water supply in the near future. >

I grew up in Wyoming and live in Maryland now (go where the work is...). I've always planned on moving back West when I retired, but what with the wildfires and drought, that's completely off the table now, let alone 10 or 20 years from now. >

Yesterday it came out that supposedly we gave Ukraine 14 Su-25 that we had.
Our Minister of Defence came out and said that no planes have been sold in the past year to appease everyone 
4D chess >

It's like Lukashenko promising Putin to send "up to 7 divisions" to invade Ukraine.  And then sending 0.  Which is.... technically... "up to 7."
This is what happens if you push the literal rest of the world too far. >

Forever friends >

Most former Warsaw Pact countries seem to understand the importance of helping Ukraine stop Russia now >

This can’t be stressed enough.  That the former Warsaw Pact countries saw Ukraine getting invaded and essentially all of them said “fuck that.” >

Belarus also shows what life is like if you get too cozy with Russia and give up your sovereignty. >

For the record. Belarusian citizens spent most of 2020 in the streets protesting the (widely condemned as illegitimate) re-election of Lukashenko. It's not like Belarus is wrapped around Russia's little finger. Belarus is pinned under Russia's thumb. >

Fuck Sad Vlad's oppressive and authoritarian government. No one is innocent or safe in their putrid eyes.
I'm sure if he wasn't a trigger-happy nutcase, Belarusian would probably oppose Russia a lot more. >

Another take on that is that Russia has never been as weak or vulnerable, any countries looking to assert their independence could join with Ukraine. >

I smell Chechens!
Plotting another revolution, I mean. >

I hope so. Georgia can win some territory back as well. >

Now would certainly be the time. I’d love to see Russia fighting on about 5 fronts right about now. >

According to our officials we are not helping,but this is a public secret in our country.There are rumours that we are in top 5 suppliers to Ukraine >

Aussie here. One thing I've learned from this war is that I did not comprehend the depth of contempt Eastern Europe had for Russia. >

This movie will explain perfectly to you why there is so much contempt. It's about Bulgarian history but similar things happened to all other post-soviet countries and satellites. >

Yeah, we couldn’t send any heavy weapons because they are frankly obsolete and in poor maintenance. However the Arsenal factory’s been working in three shifts for months. We’ve sent tons upon tons of small arms ammo. >

This explains Arsenal factory's newly open recruit offices in nearby cities. >

Yeah, Bulgaria has got a lot of factories left over from the USSR days that were responsible for producing Warsaw Pact calibers of artillery shells.  Western factories are only setup to produce NATO calibers.
Since the war got started, those Bulgarian factories have been working around the clock to produce tons of the stuff, which has been being purchased by Poland (probably with American money) who seems to have suddenly developed an insatiable appetite for it, despite having a relatively low number of systems that can use it. Strange.
Sadly, it turns out Poland has totally awful warehouse security and they keep misplacing the ammo they just purchased, which has an uncanny knack for showing up in the hands of those cheeky thieving Ukranians.
Oh well, better order another shipment to replace the one that got  "lost". >

That was an open secret since first months of the big invasion. Bulgaria was doing their best. >

Bulgaria manufactures some quality AK74 pattern rifles that Ukrainians are probably pretty familiar with. They also manufacture a LOT of the 5.45x39mm ammunition that these rifles use so it makes sense for them to help if they can from the logistics standpoint. >

Western Europe: “We’ll supply Ukraine but we can’t take it too far; just one step at a time”
Eastern Europe: “BLOOD FOR BLOOD! BLOOD FOR BLOOD!” >

They know what life is like under the russian boot. >

Not how many people view it in Bulgaria. While the majority of younger people (as far as I've seen) are anti-Russian and pro-West, the older generation who lived during our communist phase are generally pro-Russia.
Those people liked communism (we were much worse before it, my grandmother has stories about hunger and how a single orange was a treasured gift for Christmas), some studied in Russia, have friends there and consider them "brotherly" people. They've watched Russian cartoons as children and read Russian books as teenagers.
Also historically we have a lot of good will for Russia, since it was them who liberated us from the Ottoman Empire, after 500 years of occupation.
I don't know what Eastern European nations think (we are Southern more than Eastern), but the majority of Bulgarians had no issue with Russia, before this war, and even now many still don't. >

Russia liberated Bulgaria in 19th century for their own self interests. Imagine if Bulgaria wasn't communist after WW2 how far ahead economically it would be. Communism made things better but still lagged behind the west. Just look at Greece for example it's next door neighbor. >

Bulgaria has the chushkopek.  Greece does not.  Bulgaria is clearly superior. >

That's the shirt of Southeastern European smack talk I don't understand but expect. I imagine it's the equivalent of a Minnesotan telling a Wisconsinite that they're tater tot hot dish is inferior. >

In rough translation, it would mean "We invented and have the tool to roast peppers". To which a Greek would probably reply with "But do you have olives?"