Azerbaijan’s President Ilham Aliyev on Monday signed a decree to give Ukraine another $2 million in humanitarian aid, predominantly for much-needed electrical equipment.
The new contribution came on top of $1 million in humanitarian aid authorized by Aliyev in February.
Aliyev condemned Russian airstrikes against Ukraine’s energy infrastructure on Sunday, especially oil and gas facilities owned by Azeri enterprises, some of them state-owned. Aliyev promised Russia’s attacks would not hinder energy cooperation with Ukraine.
Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky on Sunday thanked Aliyev for helping Ukraine repair energy infrastructure damaged by Russian attacks.
“I informed about Russian strikes on our energy facilities. Ukraine considers this a deliberate attempt by Russia to block the energy routes that ensure energy independence for us and other European countries,” Zelensky said of his conversation with Aliyev.
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Zelensky also congratulated the Azeri leader for signing on to the peace agreement with Armenia brokered by President Donald Trump.
“The world has responded very positively to the trilateral meeting in Washington. We hope everything will work,” he said, referring to the summit at the White House on Friday between Aliyev, Trump, and Armenian Prime Minister Nikol Pashinyan.
Azerbaijan and Armenia have been fighting over disputed territory for decades, during which their mutual friends in Moscow conspicuously failed to negotiate peace the way Trump did.
Armenia is additionally furious at Russia for refusing to intervene when Azerbaijan took control of the disputed Nagorno-Karabakh region with a brutal siege and swift attack in late 2023. Azerbaijan had its own falling out with Russia in July, after the Russians allegedly tortured and murdered Azeris accused of running an organized crime ring.
Azerbaijan is reportedly thinking about lifting its ban on providing weapons to Ukraine. The Azeri military has a sizable inventory of Soviet-era tanks and artillery that would be useful to the Ukrainians, and highly compatible with the old Soviet weapons they already rely upon.
Some of Aliyev’s critics are not pleased that America and Europe are going soft on Azerbaijan’s authoritarian ruler because they want him to help Ukraine against Russia.
Aliyev’s last election victory, returning him to office for a fifth term, was viewed with suspicion by election monitors. His government is hostile to opposition parties and the press, giving it one of the lowest press freedom indexes in the world. Human rights activists view Azerbaijan’s conquest of Nagorno-Karabakh as an example of ethnic cleansing.
Aliyev does not take foreign criticism well, having shut down the offices of the United Nations, the International Committee of the Red Cross, and the BBC for threatening his regime. The European Union (EU) indulged him because Azerbaijan helped wean Europe from Russian gas, and now its peace treaty with Armenia is putting pressure on Russian President Vladimir Putin to negotiate peace with Ukraine.
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