Azerbaijan is providing Ukraine with humanitarian aid worth $1 million. This was reported by the press service of President Ilham Aliyev, who has already signed the relevant decree, News.bg reports.
This is not the first time that Azerbaijan has assisted Ukraine, which is in its third year of war. However, the presidential press release does not use the word “war“, but instead replaces it with the phrase “current situation“. The decree explicitly states that the aid is intended for “the Ukrainian people“.
The funds will be provided by the so-called The funds will be used to purchase electrical equipment.
According to the Azerbaijani Foreign Ministry, from the beginning of the war until the end of 2024, Azerbaijan has provided humanitarian aid worth about $40 million. The country is trying to balance the conflict between Moscow and Kiev, and so far there is no information about the supply or sale of weapons. At the same time, President Ilham Aliyev continues to maintain contacts with the Kremlin, without joining the Western isolation of Russian President Vladimir Putin.
However, after the start of Russian aggression against Ukraine, Aliyev stressed that he supports the territorial integrity of the country.
The decree also states that relations between Azerbaijan and Ukraine are based on friendship and partnership. The document refers to bilateral agreements signed in March 2000, May 2008. and on January 14, 2022 - just ten days before the Russian army invaded Ukraine on the orders of Vladimir Putin.
However, relations between Baku and Moscow have been strained over the past month following the crash of an Azerbaijani plane that was unable to land at a Russian airport due to Russian air defenses and was diverted to Aktau, Kazakhstan, with serious damage to the fuselage from Russian missiles. Despite admissions from the Kremlin and Vladimir Putin himself, Russian authorities have not taken direct responsibility for the incident. Some analysts have stressed that the plane's flight over the Caspian Sea may have been intentional in order to cover up the crash.