The beginning of the Bulgarian-Ukrainian relations could be traced back to the Early Middle Ages. According to Gothic historian Jordanes of the 6th c. and his Byzantine contemporary Procopius of Caesarea, the Slav tribes, who started settling in the territory of present-day Bulgaria in the 5th and 6th c.c., at the time inhabited the lands between the Dnieper and the Dniester Rivers. As for the proto-Bulgarians, those occupied the Sea of Azov and the Black Sea steppelands prior to invading the Balkan Peninsula. It was in these steppes that the foundations of the Great Bulgaria under Khan Kubrat were laid. Some of the medieval chroniclers maintain that the Volga River, called at the time the Itil, where the Volga Bulgaria was set up, had been renamed by the Bulgarians living on its banks. The archaeological sources are indicative of the brisk commercial relations between Bulgaria and Kievan Rus. When Princess Olga, who is said to be of Bulgarian extraction, visited Constantinople, a high-ranking Bulgarian cleric, priest Gregory was among her retinue. The latter was deemed to be highly educated and close to the Bulgarian king. After the death of King Simeon, Gregory joined Princess Olga to become her spiritual mentor.

Christianity, gaining ground in Kievan Rus, fostered the development of political and cultural relations with Bulgaria. At the time, Kievan Rus was profoundly influenced by the Bulgarian letters and culture. The ancient Russian chronicles mention that under Prince Vladimir schools were established for the children of the boyars, where Bulgarian monks used to teach.

The Tale of Bygone Years (Russian Primary Chronicle) informs that the mother of Boris and Gleb, the sons of Grand Prince Vladimir, killed by Svyatopolk and later sainted, was a Bulgarian woman. Prince Yakov Svetoslav sought protection in Bulgaria from the Tatar-Mongolian invasion in 1240. He was welcomed by the Bulgarians and King Ivan Asen II appointed him the despot of the mountainous part of Moesia. An early written document, exemplary of any bilateral cooperation, is also indicative of the history of Bulgarian-Ukrainian relations. The Nikon Chronicle, which on more that one occasion broaches the Prince Vladimir’s campaigns against the Bulgarians without elaborating on whether it were the Volga or Don Bulgarians, runs under the year of 985: “And Vladimir made peace with the Bulgarians, and they vowed to each other, saying: Only then would the peace between us be broken, when stone would go afloat and hop sink.”

Many a Bulgarian took refuge in the lands of today’s Ukraine from the victimization in the days of the Ottoman bondage in the Balkans. The largest were the flows of immigrants to Southern Russia in the Russo-Turkish Wars of 1768–74 and 1828–29. A number of outstanding figures of the struggle for Bulgarian national liberation came from the Bulgarian colonies, which settled there. Many of the young people exiled from their homeland received very good schooling at the Bulgarian schools in Bolgrad and Odessa. Bulgarian people venerate the memory of the Ukrainians as well as of all others who shed their blood in the Russo-Turkish War 1877–78.

The historical and traditionally good relations between Ukrainians and Bulgarians have been a favourable precondition for developing the bilateral relations in modern times as well. Bulgaria established diplomatic relations with Ukraine as early as WWI, assigning its minister plenipotentiary to Kyiv: Dr. Ivan Shishmanov presented his credentials on June 7, 1918. In August of the same year, Ukraine also opened a mission in Sofia, headed by Minister Plenipotentiary Alexander Shulgin. With the country’s inclusion within the USSR the diplomatic relations between Bulgaria and Ukraine were suspended.

After Ukraine declared its independence on August 24, 1991 Bulgaria was among the first to recognize its sovereignty on December 5, 1991, showing its readiness to establish diplomatic relations. On December 13, 1991 on the invitation of the then Foreign Minister Stoian Ganev, a delegation from Ukraine, led by Ukraine’s Foreign Minister Anatoly Zlenko arrived on a one-day working visit in Sofia. The same day the foreign ministers signed two protocols on establishing diplomatic and consular relations.

The Ministry of Foreign Affairs of the Republic of Bulgaria sent a note of February 14, 1992 informing Ukraine’s foreign ministry that by a resolution of February 11, 1992 the Bulgarian cabinet transformed the Consulate General in Kyiv (opened in May 1991) into Embassy of the Republic of Bulgaria in Ukraine in compliance with the Protocol of December 13, 1991 on establishment of diplomatic relations.
Shortly after that, on October 5, 1992 a ten-year agreement on cooperation and friendly relations was inked in Sofia to be ratified by the Bulgarian party in March 1994.

Peter Markov was the first Bulgarian ambassador to Ukraine to present his credentials in end-1992. Ukraine opened its embassy in Sofia in May 1993 and Ambassador Alexander Vorobiev presented his credentials on May 18.

The leading aspect in the bilateral relations of Bulgaria and Ukraine is the high-level political dialogue. The relations are built on the principle of strategic partnership, stipulated in the Resolution on the further development of cooperation, which the Presidents of Ukraine and Bulgaria signed in 1998. The immediate result of the meetings held on a regular basis at high and working levels is that the two countries have no unclarified major political issues. Both countries state a wish for partnership and will for dynamism in the bilateral relations in all areas for sustainable stability, peace and security in the region.

Bilateral relations are being maintained at all levels. The President of the Republic of Bulgaria, Georgi Parvanov paid an official visit to Ukraine, January 30 – February 1, 2003. Ukraine’s President Victor Yushchenko took part in the 13th meeting of Central European presidents, held in May 2006 in Varna.

President of the 39th National Assembly, Prof. Ognian Gedjikov paid an official visit to Ukraine on June 2–4, 2003. Two official visits at premier’s level were made to Bulgaria: by Pavlo Lazarenko in 1996 and Victor Yushchenko on July 27–29, 2000, and two were paid to Ukraine: by Ivan Kostov in 1997 and Simeon Saxe-Coburg Gotha on May 21–24, 2004.

On November 29–30, 2005 Deputy Prime Minister and Minister of Foreign Affairs Ivailo Kalfin also paid an official visit to Kyiv. On the sidelines of the visit, several agreements were signed: Memorandum on cooperation in the area of European and Euro-Atlantic integration; Consultancy Plan between the foreign ministries of Bulgaria and Ukraine; letters of ratification were exchanged concerning the enactment of the Agreement on legal aid in civil cases.

The legal basis of the relations between the two countries includes 39 intergovernmental and 30 intradepartmental agreements, contracts and protocols apart from the Agreement on Cooperation and Friendly Relations of October 5, 1992, which became effective on March 2, 1994.

Bulgaria and Ukraine share a number of common interests both regionally and globally. They interact energetically within the UN, OBSEC, CEI, The Danube Commission, Council of Europe, etc. Ukraine is an important trade partner of Bulgaria, yet according to both countries, the trade volume lags behind their potentials. There are objective grounds for boosting the cooperation in the area of investment. Ukrainian investments in Bulgaria are mostly in industry.

Bulgaria is an attractive tourist market to Ukrainians. The number of Ukrainian holiday-makers in Bulgaria marks an upsurge with the updated Agreement of 2004 on mutual trips for the citizens of the two countries.

Mutually beneficial prove to be the contacts in the areas of education, science and culture, based on the intergovernmental Agreement in the fields of culture, education and science and on the interdepartmental Agreement on cooperation between the ministries of education and science of December 9, 1994, as well as on the Protocols to the Agreement for each academic year. There are recognized centres of Bulgarian studies in Kyiv, Odessa, Kharkiv and Lviv. The two academies of Sciences and the Kyiv and Sofia universities maintain direct contacts with the two universities having lectureships in Bulgarian and Ukrainian languages respectively.

In Ukraine, Bulgarian societies are engaged in enlightening and publishing activities. The Association of Bulgarian Culture and Enlightening Societies runs an All-Ukrainian Centre of Bulgarian Culture in Odessa. In early 1998, a Centre of Bulgarian Culture was also opened in Bolgrad, where there is a Bulgarian high school.

Bulgarian studies are taught at the National Universities of Kyiv, Zaporizhzhya, Odessa and Lviv, as well as at the Southern-Ukrainian and the Pedagogical Institute of Berdyansk, the Commercial Institute of Berdyansk, at the Belgorod-Dniester Pedagogical School. At the first five of them, teachers commissioned by the Bulgarian Ministry of Education and Science are lecturing. In 1994, May 24, which has been celebrated since the National Revival Period as Day of Bulgarian Letters and Culture and the Creators of the Slavic Alphabet, Holy Brothers Cyril and Methodius has been declared an official holiday in Ukraine as well.