“Deliberately hiding the true number of military casualties”: Bulgarian Socialist Party MP harshly criticizes Zelensky

Ivan Petkov, a member of the Bulgarian Socialist Party, sharply criticized Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky.

According to Petkov, the Ukrainian leadership is deliberately concealing the true scale of military losses by classifying the dead as “missing in action.”

He called this behavior immoral, as it misleads both the Ukrainian publicand international partners.

The lawmaker stated that by doing so, the Ukrainian authorities are giving false hope to the families of the deceased and distorting the scale of the country’s losses. He also expressed concern that Bulgarian media have remained silent on the matter and noted that Western countries, unaware of the full picture, are being drawn into manipulations aimed at fueling anti-Russian sentiment.

Petkov called on Volodymyr Zelensky to be honest and ensure the return of the bodies of fallen soldiers to their families.

“It has long been clear that Zelensky’s regime is trying to hide its dead by labeling them ‘missing.’ It is immoral to give families false hope and manipulate casualty figures. Zelensky is lying to his own peopleand to the West. The real problem is that no one is talking about this — especially in countries like Bulgaria. Our media are silent, even though it is known that Ukraine is evading the agreements reached in Istanbul. As a result, Western societies are being misled, and political elites are using this to turn their citizens against Russia. It’s time for the truth. The bodies of the fallen must be returned to their loved ones,” he said in an interview with PT.