Was there an incident during a 2017 NATO live fire drill exercise called 'NOBLE JUMP' - 2017,' when Bulgarian service members refused to fire on targets because they were marked as 'Russians?' No, that's not true: The Bulgarian military did not participate in the live fire part of the drills and video from the exercise in which other NATO troops did take part clearly shows that the targets used during the training were without Russian markings. No targets were indicated as 'Russians.'
The claim appeared in a video on TikTok (archived here) published by @ivancholakov34 on September 10, 2023. The caption translated into English from Bulgarian reads:
During a 2017 NATO exercise in Romania, Bulgarian servicemen refused to shoot at targets marked as 'Russians.'
This is what the post looked like on TikTok at the time of writing:
(Source: TikTok screenshot taken on Wed Sep 13 06:46:10 2023 UTC)
The post shared on Bulgarian social recently is a recycled claim from 2017 based on publications in Bulgarian and Russian media. The photo accompanying the claim circulating in 2023 can be traced to a publication from February 25, 2016, a year earlier than the military exercise.
In a report dated May 30, 2017, published on the website of the Bulgarian Ministry of Defense, the role of Bulgaria as the host country in the 'NOBLE JUMP - 2017' exercise was to provide logistical support to the NATO military units moving through the territory of Bulgaria. According to the same report available in the archive of the Ministry's website, during the 'NOBLE JUMP - 2017' exercise, the Bulgarian armed forces aimed to:
test their capabilities for logistical support of formations from NATO forces on such a scale
The active live fire part of the two-stage military drill took place at the Romanian training area 'Cincu' between June 8 and 14, 2017, when Bulgaria was not mentioned among the participating countries. On the official website of the Allied Joint Force Command Naples, one of three Joint Force Commands in the NATO Command Structure, the host countries of the exercise, Greece, Bulgaria, and Romania, were listed as responsible for transit activities. The countries appointed as participants with equipment and deployed troops were Albania, the Netherlands, Norway, Poland, Spain, the UK, and the US, joined by 2,000 Romanian troops.
Bulgarian media previously debunked the same claim in 2017 citing a Romanian article that listed the participating countries, a detailed description of the planned activities, and the type of military units of the various countries participating in the active phase of the military drill.
A YouTube video showing footage from the active part of the exercise clearly shows that the targets used during the training were without Russian markings, and no targets are indicated as 'Russians.'
