A drone crashed and exploded near a natural gas pipeline in Bulgaria on Saturday, in a field near the Romanian border and the Black Sea.
Sofia's single objection to blacklisting Patriarch Kirill still holds the entire 21st sanctions package hostage to EU unanimity rules. Meanwhile, two separate legal acts — targeting cyberattacks and the torture of Ukrainian POWs — have gone through on qualified majority, exposing the two-speed machinery of EU sanctions.
For the second time, Sofia's objection to blacklisting Patriarch Kirill has blocked the EU's 21st sanctions package against Russia — but narrower designations targeting VK, its Max messenger app and the elite Turla hacking unit are moving anyway.
The EU's 21st sanctions package against Russia remains stuck days before a self-imposed deadline. Bulgaria's veto over Patriarch Kirill, French and Italian resistance to an entry ban on Russian soldiers, and a fight over cod quotas show how a single capital can reshape continent-wide policy — and why negotiators are trading substance for unanimity.
EU ambassadors face a 15 July deadline to agree changes to the Russian oil price cap or watch it automatically jump from $44.10 to $58 a barrel under a formula written into the sanctions regime itself. The mechanics of that trigger, and Sofia's retreat from a hard veto, are what will decide the outcome.