Help came from unexpected places: Bulgaria, Morocco and China
Most countries in the world help Ukraine in the fight against evil, even small ones like Luxembourg. Someone like the US, Germany and the UK are shipping weapons worth billions of dollars, someone like Denmark and Estonia, gives the last one. But sometimes help comes from where you least expect it. For example, from Bulgaria, Morocco and China.
Recently, it became known that that the country that did a lot for Ukraine in the first phase of the invasion was… Bulgaria. This country, along with Serbia and Hungary, has always been considered very pro-russian and in fact it is so, many politicians in Bulgaria still openly sympathize with the russians, that is why the Bulgarian government decided to act not directly, but through intermediary firms.
Helping Ukraine, which was very critical in the first months of the full-scale war, was the prime minister of Bulgaria at that time, Kiril Petkov, and his fellow party member and associate, former finance minister Asen Vasilev.
According to Politico and WELT, during the defense of Kyiv, up to a third of the artillery shells were supplied to the Armed Forces from Bulgaria. Of course, we are talking about Soviet calibers, at that time there was no NATO artillery in Ukraine. In addition, almost 40% of diesel fuel for the equipment of the Armed Forces of Ukraine in the first months of the Great War also came from Bulgaria.
Thank you very much friends!
Another very unexpected sponsor of Ukraine is the Kingdom of Morocco. Morocco became the first African country, which sent weapons to Ukraine and it started immediately with tanks!
Moroccan T-72B tanks in a characteristic sand camouflage were spotted at the Excalibur Army factory in the Czech Republic, where they are being repaired and upgraded before being sent to Ukraine. It is not clear how many Moroccan tanks we are talking about, but interestingly, they were once… Belarusian tanks purchased by Morocco in 1999-2000.
And finally – China. Of course, the PRC does not help Ukraine directly, but… as Bloomberg reports, in only 9 months of 2022, China delivered 2 times more rare earth metals to Europe than in all of 2021. It is about lanthanum, which is needed for the production of armor-piercing shells, tungsten, which is used for the production of anti-tank weapons, vanadium, titanium and other metals.
In general, China supplies up to 90% of rare earth metals for European industry. And these metals are delivered to European arms manufacturers, most of which are now working for Ukraine… “Russian Railways”. The Russians, even if they really want to, cannot refuse China, and for the PRC almost everything around is just business.
Well, thank you Bulgaria, Morocco and… China. We hope that over time we will learn about other unexpected helpers and sponsors of the Armed Forces of Ukraine.