EU Ambassador David Geer on Thursday dismissed attempts made to draw a parallel between the Russia-Ukraine conflict and the situation between Macedonia and Bulgaria.

In response to a reporter’s question at a joint press conference with French Ambassador Cyrille Baumgartner that Vladimir Putin’s conditions towards Ukraine are similar to those set by Bulgaria towards Macedonia in the historical context of defining nations, he said that the EU completely rejects this comparison between the two situations, which, as he said, are two extremely different situations.

Russia’s own actions are widely condemned in the UN General Assembly, and these are two different situations. I completely reject drawing a parallel between the relations between Russia and Ukraine, with those between Bulgaria and Macedonia. In Ukraine, as I said, we see cities being bombed by the Russian army, we have attacks on a sovereign state whose territory is in question, Geer said.

The EU Ambassador stressed that there are several areas of dispute in the bilateral relations between Skopje and Sofia, but, as he said, Bulgaria was the first country to recognize Macedonia’s independence and continued to support its integrity and sovereignty.