Prime Minister Kiril Petkov said on Monday that Bulgaria supports sanctions against Russia as a means of stopping the invasion of Ukraine, but will likely want an exemption from a ban on natural gas and oil imports if such a proposal is submitted, Reuters reports.

Bulgaria is almost completely dependent on Gazprom’s gas supply, and its only oil refinery, owned by Russia’s LUKOIL, supplies more than 60 percent of the country’s fuel.

“Bulgaria would support all kinds of measures because we are really against the war, but for these two (oil and gas), we might ask for an exemption … We have no alternatives right now, we are too dependent,” Prime Minister Petkov said, according to Agerpres.

“We fully support the Ukrainian people, we have supported the first package of sanctions, we are even open to other sanctions; only these two sanctions would be very difficult for us to adopt as an economy and as a country,” he said.

His government will also start buying 1.5 million tonnes of wheat to strengthen its food supply until next year’s harvest and to avoid the risks that could rise from any possible accident at nuclear power plants in Ukraine.

Bulgaria, which produced more than seven million tonnes of wheat last year, has no plans to ban wheat exports, Petkov said, adding that the state will also strengthen its corn and sunflower seed reserves.

Prime Minister Kiril Petkov also said that Bulgaria is currently maintaining its target of joining the eurozone in January 2024. He said inflation in Bulgaria would be similar to that of eurozone countries.