Baku to reportedly ‘lift arms embargo’ on Ukraine after Russian attack on Azerbaijani gas facility
The Azerbaijani pro-government media outlet Caliber has cited anonymous sources as saying that Baku will ‘begin considering’ lifting an arms embargo on Ukraine following a Russian attack on an Azerbaijani petrol depot in Odesa.
Caliber cited ‘reliable sources’ as saying that Baku might come to this decision ‘if Russia continues its aggressive policy against Azerbaijan’s interests’.
‘Let’s note that the Russian armed forces have begun systematically striking Azerbaijan’s energy facilities on Ukrainian territory. This situation forces Baku to take retaliatory measures. All of this will inevitably lead to a further deepening of the crisis in bilateral relations’, wrote Caliber.
Since the 25 December crash of an Azerbaijani Airlines (AZAL) flight between Baku and Grozny in Aktau, Kazakhstan, relations between Baku and Moscow have seemingly been in freefall.
Since Russia’s full-scale invasion of Ukraine in 2022, Azerbaijan has provided the country more than $40 million in humanitarian aid.
Yet, despite indications of increased support, Azerbaijan has so far officially refrained from providing arms to Ukraine.
In April 2024, Azerbaijani President Ilham Aliyev stated at an international forum that, ‘Even if we are asked, we do not give weapons to Ukraine, we can say this openly, we will not. Humanitarian aid — yes, weapons — no, that is my answer’.
‘This is a great tragedy for two nations that are very close to each other ethnically and religiously. Was there a chance to avoid war? I think there was. Did the Ukrainian leadership have a chance in previous years to establish normal relations with Russia? I am absolutely sure that there was’, Aliyev emphasised in his speech.
However, during a speech in July 2025 during a media forum in Stepanakert (Khankendi), Aliyev openly supported Ukraine, telling them to ‘never come to terms with the occupation’.
Nate Ostiller
On Monday, Aliyev issued a decree providing $2 million in aid to the Ukrainian energy sector which is intended to be used to purchase and ship electrical equipment produced in Azerbaijan. The funds will be provided from the President’s Reserve Fund, provided for in the state budget of Azerbaijan for 2025.
Aliyev’s decree came the day after he held a telephone conversation with his Ukrainian counterpart Volodymyr Zelenskyi.
According to a statement published by the president’s website, Aliyev and Zelenskyi ‘condemned the deliberate airstrikes by Russia on an oil storage facility owned by Azerbaijan’s SOCAR in Ukraine, as well as other Azerbaijani facilities and a gas compressor station transporting Azerbaijani gas to Ukraine’.
‘They emphasised their confidence that these attacks would not hinder energy cooperation between Azerbaijan and Ukraine’, the statement continued.
Russia attacked facilities holding Azerbaijani gas in Odesa Oblast on 6 August, including a compressor station near the Ukrainian–Romanian border.
‘This compressor station was involved in the route connecting Greek LNG terminals with Ukrainian gas storage facilities via the Trans-Balkan gas pipeline, through which LNG from the US and test volumes of Azerbaijani gas were already supplied’, Ukrainian Energy Minister Svitlana Hrynchuk said.
‘This is a clear and understandable signal for all of Europe, which plans to completely abandon Russian natural gas in 2027’.
The attack on Azerbaijan-linked Ukraine’s gas facilities in Odesa was not the only related incident in recent days.
On Saturday, Romanian media outlet G4 wrote, citing unnamed official sources, that ‘Russia may have been behind the contamination of a batch of Azerbaijani oil en route from Turkey’.
Earlier in August, the Romanian Energy Ministry reported that a shipment of Azerbaijani crude oil from the Turkish port of Ceyhan was contaminated with organic chlorides and rendered unusable.
G4 reported that the Baku–Tbilisi–Ceyhan Pipeline Company (BTC), which operates the main source of Azerbaijani fossil fuels flowing to the EU, also said the contaminant had been found in ‘several storage tanks’.
Nate Ostiller
