Ukraine makes diplomatic breakthrough with Azerbaijan, expert suggests
Volodymyr Zelenskyy and Ilham Aliyev (Photo: Press Service of President of Azerbaijan/Handout via REUTERS)
Ukraine–Azerbaijan
relations have qualitatively improved in a diplomatic “breakthrough,” Serhiy
Danilov, deputy head of the Association for Middle East Studies, told NV Radio
on April 27.
Danilov noted that President Volodymyr Zelenskyy’s recent trip to Azerbaijan was his first visit to a post-Soviet country since the start of Russia’s full-scale invasion. He said the trip had originally been planned alongside a visit to Kazakhstan, with Moscow working to derail both.
“There are grounds to believe there were supposed to be two visits — to the South Caucasus and to [Kazakhstan in] Central Asia,” Danilov said.
“Russia did everything it could to spoil the visits to Baku and Astana. But Aliyev withstood the pressure, did not give in to Russian threats and received the president of Ukraine.”
Danilov said the informal “ban” on Zelenskyy visits that Moscow had sought to impose has effectively been lifted. He pointed to military-technical cooperation, technology transfers and plans for joint weapons production as signs of deepening trust between Kyiv and Baku.
“Joint weapons production is always a high degree of trust,”
Danilov said. “So, we have a breakthrough, a small revolution. The Russian
barriers they put up have been removed.”
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