Bulgarians Let Ukrainian Plane Fly Home

The Ukrainian Il-76 airplane, detained more than a month ago in Bulgaria on suspicion of illegally trafficking arms to Eritrea, has been released because the accusations were found groundless. A Bulgarian Foreign Ministry note, received by its Ukrainian counterpart, says the district prosecution office of the city of Burgas has dropped the case against the Ukrainian Volare Air Company for lack of evidence, UNIAN reports.

The plane was detained on April 24 at Burgas Airport, where it landed for refueling. Bulgarian customs officers found 30 tons of special purpose cargo onboard, including Kalashnikov automatic rifles and ammunition. The plane was making a flight on contract with the Georgian Ministry of Defense. However, one of the documents indicated Eritrea as another destination. The Bulgarians presumed that the Ukrainian plane was delivering weapons to precisely that African country in breach of a UN Security Council resolution and for this reason the aircraft was detained for violating the embargo.

Immediately after being released, the plane delivered its cargo to Kutaisi, Georgia, and returned to Ukraine. UNIAN quotes Oleksandr Voloboi, Volare executive director, as saying the company will bring legal action against Bulgaria in the European Court in Strasbourg and the International Tribunal in the Hague for illegal detention of the airplane.

Meanwhile, many experts regard the latest incident as but another attempt to compromise Ukraine in the eyes of the international community. As is known, on May 16 the UN Security Council lifted its arms embargo on Eritrea. In fact, the scandal about Ukraine’s alleged breach of international regulations had erupted a week or two earlier. Some Ukrainian diplomats do not rule out that this conjuncture of circumstances was no accident.