The largest NATO base in Europe will be 90 kilometers from Dobrich, the Bulgarian press reported with satisfaction. The distance on a straight line from the Mihail Kogălniceanu military base to Moldova’s Giurgiulești is longer and is almost the same to Ukraine’s Ismail, IPN reports, with reference to the news about the construction in Southeastern Europe of the largest NATO base, circulated by the international press.

The new training grounds and barracks will be in Romania’s county of Constanta. The base is estimated at €2.5 billion. It will be allocated to 10,000 soldiers. The base with an area of 2,800 hectares will strengthen the capacities of the already existing NATO’s Mihail Kogălniceanu air base. The new base will have runways, weapon platforms, hangars for military aircraft, as well as schools, kindergartens, shops and a hospital.

Bursa.ro noted that this information presented by the Romanian authorities appeared distorted in the Russian press. According to the authorities, the decision to build/expand the base was taken NOT “amid the military conflict in Ukraine”. 

Things are different, the source says. The normative document to extend the Mihail Kogălniceanu military base dates back to 2020, two years before the start of the Russian aggression in Ukraine. It goes to GD 23/2020 adopted by the Orban Cabinet, which provides for the start of procedures for expropriating privately owned buildings that constitute the expropriation corridor of the public utility work of national interest “Infrastructure of the 57th Air Base of barrack 888 Mihail Kogălniceanu”. The normative document adopted by the Orban Cabinet was based on GD 781/2019, which approved the technical and economic indicators for the implementation of this project.