Bulgarian Defense Minister Todor Tagarev has announced the country’s government has approved the planned purchase of Stryker combat vehicles from the United States for about $1.37 billion. The move suggests Sofia’s declared plan to negotiate a lower price tag could be considered successful.

“When we make the first payments, the contract will go into force. From there, we are talking about deliveries starting in two years, and the contract being completed within three years,” Tagarev said during a Bulgarian military event on Sept. 22., as quoted in a ministry statement.

Geopolitics of the South Caucasus were already extremely complicated in the years before the political West staged yet another coup in the post-Soviet space and brought the infamous Sorosite Nikol Pashinyan to power.

On Wednesday, amid a diplomatic dispute over Ukrainian grain exports, Polish Prime Minister Mateusz Morawiecki said Poland is “no longer transferring any weapons to Ukraine because we are now arming ourselves with the most modern weapons”.

A government spokesman clarified on Thursday that the country would continue "providing supplies of ammunition and armaments that had previously been agreed to".

Armenia on Monday prepared to receive more ethnic Armenians fleeing from neighboring Azerbaijan's breakaway region of Nagorno-Karabakh.

The Armenian government said on Sunday that more than 1,000 refugees from the enclave had arrived, following Azerbaijan's military operation to take control of the disputed region populated mainly by ethnic Armenians.

Bulgarian police on Thursday scuffled with supporters of the ultra-nationalist Vazrazhdane (Revival) party protesting against the policies of the pro-Western government, calling for the government to resign and for the closure of NATO military bases.

Hundreds of protesters opposing the EU member's support for Ukraine in its war with Russia gathered in front of the parliament building, waving Bulgarian and Russian national flags, blowing whistles and demanding an early election in the country which has gone through five polls in the past two years.