VMZ (Vazovsky Machine-Building Plant)

For 2022, VMZ is included in the list of 11 largest defense enterprises in Bulgaria and mainly specializes in the production of Soviet-style ammunition. The geography of sales covers almost the whole world: despite the controversial quality, Bulgarian shells are in demand on all continents.

2022

Bulgarian authorities bypass parliamentary ban on the supply of ammunition to Ukraine

In July 2022, the Bulgarian press exposed a scheme according to which the authorities bypass the parliamentary ban and continue to fulfill contracts for the supply of ammunition produced at VMZ to Ukraine through "intermediaries" - Poland, the Czech Republic and Romania.

The Bivol edition published documents confirming the transfer by the Bulgarian company Alguns of a large number of shells for the Grad MLRS, the Gvozdika and Acacia howitzers of the Romanian state corporation RomArm. Further, according to the agreements, RomArm was supposed to resell them to their "daughter" Nanotech Defense SRL. And this company, in turn, is a direct supplier of weapons for the Ministry of Defense of Ukraine.

Alguns received about $36 million in advance from a bank account in Britain with a total transaction value of 200 million. She could go unnoticed, but her participants were ruined by the desire to carry out machinations as quickly as possible and banal greed. The fact is that the shells transferred to the Romanian side turned out to be of extremely poor quality: they were returned back.

In an attempt to save their reputation and money, the Alguns management appealed to the Bulgarian plant VMZ to repair the ammunition for further resale to Ukraine. This threatened to disrupt the delivery dates for other contracts, so VMZ refused.

And they paid with a change of leadership: Kiril Petkov, who held the post of prime minister at that time, known for his close ties with Western partners, demanded the dismissal of four out of five members of the Board of Directors.

The story caused a wide resonance in Bulgaria. And then another unpleasant fact surfaced: these ammunition were purchased by Alguns in Belarus back in 2015. And Minsk should have been surprised that the weapons went to re-export: the agreement did not provide for this. But there were no comments from the Belarusian side: in principle, they do not like to spread about the supply of weapons.

It turned out that the Bulgarians simply forged consent from the state company GVTUP Belvneshpromservice. The company allegedly informed Alguns about "the absence of obstacles to re-export of products to third countries." It was this document from 2017 that became the official basis for further transactions of the Bulgarian company Alguns with the Romanian RomArm, which was supposed to redirect the cargo to Ukraine.

The irony of the situation is also that in order to issue a permit for the export of weapons to third countries in Bulgaria, the consent of the Interdepartmental Commission for Export Control and Non-Proliferation of Weapons, whose head is the Minister of Economy, is necessary.

At that time, the post was held by Kornelia Ninova, who was also deputy prime minister in the coalition government of Petkov. The chairman of the "pro-Russian" Bulgarian Socialist Party has repeatedly denied Bulgarian supplies to Ukraine in interviews. And in the spring of 2022, she even promised to leave the ruling coalition if parliament agreed to supply weapons to Ukraine.

According to journalists, the transactions were prepared by representatives of Sofia and Bucharest back in April, when former Bulgarian Prime Minister Kiril Petkov visited Romania, who also publicly denied the fact of military assistance to Ukraine. Purchases were actively conducted from mid-March until the end of July.

The officials involved received large kickbacks for issuing consent: in the context of a multiple increase in the cost of ammunition against the background of hostilities, arms dealers did not skimp on bribes. By a "strange" coincidence, in the same period, production volumes at VMZ also increased sharply.

Production of projectiles without patents

According to the Rybar telegram channel, in 2022, the Bulgarian enterprise Vazovsky Machine-Building Plant produces weapons discovered in Ukraine during a special operation of Russia without appropriate permits. According to the Patent Office of the Republic of Bulgaria, the military-industrial complex company officially stopped producing thermobaric shells back in 2014. In fact, it continues to be developed without patents.

2020: Explosions in warehouses and accusations of Russia

In 2020, the Bulgarian prosecutor's office accused six Russians of explosions in VMZ warehouses, where weapons intended for Ukraine were allegedly stored. True, the "Russian trace" could not be found then - they limited themselves to unfounded accusations.

As observers noted, there is reason to believe that a series of explosions are attempts by employees of the enterprise itself to erase traces of supplies to Ukraine, as was the case with the Czech enterprise in Vrbetice.