Eight months of war! Eight months of destruction, atrocities, death and children who have lost the safest place they have – their home, their family. Eight months since the start of the Russian invasion of Ukraine.

A group of Ukrainians of Bulgarian origin submitted an open 24-page letter, signed by 792 Ukrainian Bulgarians, to the institutions in this country – the National Assembly, the government and the President, asking for help and support at a state level. In their letter they also call on the Bulgarian media for help – so that “the voice of your Bulgarian brothers in Ukraine can grow stronger and be heard”.

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All this is taking place on the eve of the Day of Bessarabian Bulgarians, 29 October, which our compatriots in Ukraine and Moldova have been marking since 1938. The person behind the open letter, Taytana Staneva, explains what her compatriots in Ukraine want:

“The first thing we want is for Bulgaria to take a clear and official position on this war. To back us – Ukrainian Bulgarians and Ukraine,” Taytana Staneva says in an interview with Irina Nedeva from the BNR’s Horizont channel. “The second thing we want is for Bulgaria to give Ukraine weapons. To help Ukraine defend its land which automatically means to help us, Bulgarians in Ukraine, because that is where our home is now. And third, we want a stop to the all-pervading Russian propaganda we are seeing in Bulgaria.”

Tatyana is a film director and documentary filmmaker who has for years been working on the problems of the ethnic Bulgarian communities in Ukraine. That is why she is so pained and perplexed by the neutrality which Bulgaria wants to maintain in this situation. “We want to see politicians talk about us (Ukrainian Bulgarians – editorial note) with our voice.”

“I wanted us to be heard – we are against neutrality. Bulgaria’s neutrality is killing us, Bulgarians in Ukraine. This war has already affected us, and Bulgaria cannot remain neutral. It has affected your brothers. Ultimately, this is not a war between Russia and Ukraine, it is a war of civilizations. What we are fighting for is freedom and human values, for democracy and against aggression, which, if it wins, will affect the whole of Europe, and then Bulgaria will not be able to remain neutral.”

She is adamant that Bessarabian, Odessa and Taurian Bulgarians, on whose initiative the letter was written, support Ukraine in its military andeavour. Tatyana says that with the proclamation of Ukraine’s independence from the USSR, her compatriots felt they were free and supported. “Only then were we allowed to learn the Bulgarian language at school, which is very important,” she says.

To the claim that rendering Ukraine military aid is only supported by war-mongering parties in Bulgaria, Tatyana retorts angrily that this is the Russian narrative:

“That is so hypocritical. I would like to hear what the President would have to say if the murderer had come to his house and had perpetrated all of the atrocities that have been perpetrated in our own homes. If someone comes along and forbids his children from speaking Bulgarian – I want to see how he is going to negotiate, how he is going to defend himself peacefully.”

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She says that Bulgaria’s sending military aid to Ukraine is a test for democracy in Bulgaria. What Ukrainians of Bulgarian origin are left with is a feeling of pain:

“We are getting the feeling more and more that the people in Moscow matter more than your own, Bulgarian blood. You believe them more than you believe us, that is why we wrote this letter – so you can hear our voice and understand one thing – we are suffering and we expect help. We, ethnic Bulgarians are waiting for Bulgaria’s help, and for us that is very symbolic, very important. I myself do not doubt for a second that Ukraine will win, because good always triumphs over evil, but I want to know how Bulgaria is going to look us in the eye afterwards,” asks Bessarabian Bulgarian Tatyana Staneva, who has chosen to live in a village near Kyiv instead of the capital city so that her child can learn Bulgarian at school.

Interview by Irina Nedeva, Horizont channel, BNR

Compiled and edited by Vessela Krasteva