LONDON

Bulgaria's parliament has backed the government’s plan to send 100 armored vehicles, along with armaments and spare parts to Ukraine, according to local media.

The decision was approved late Friday by GERB-UDF, We Continue the Change-Democratic Bulgaria, and the Movement for Rights and Freedoms, with pro-Kremlin Vuzrazhdane and the Bulgarian Socialist Party voting no.

The proposal was approved by 148 votes to 52 against, paving the way for the first shipment of heavy military equipment from Bulgaria to Ukraine since the beginning of the war in Ukraine in February last year.

Earlier, it was reported that the vehicles had been kept in army depots since the late 1980s and that Bulgarian security forces no longer required them.

Speaking in parliament, Democratic Bulgaria party lawmaker Ivaylo Mirchev said there are many Bulgarians living in Ukraine and that, unlike Russia, Ukraine has not declared Bulgaria an enemy country.

"There is no way we can modernize the army with armored vehicles from the 1960s and 1970s," he added.

Previously, the government refused to send heavy military equipment to Ukraine, as parliament voted in March against sending arms to Kyiv, instead voting in favor of repairing Ukrainian military equipment in Bulgaria.