Russian media has claimed that Azerbaijan will begin the production of 122mm and 152mm calibre artillery shells for Ukraine. OC Media has not been able to corroborate the claims, and neither Azerbaijani nor Ukrainian official sources have commented on the issue.
The theory appears to have originated from the Russian pro-war Telegram channel Joker DNR, which claimed to have obtained the information from a source in Ukraine’s Security Service (SBU).
Joker DNR, which has more than 200,000 followers, alleged that a production plant has been set up in Azerbaijan to produce shells for Ukraine’s Soviet-era artillery systems, along with the participation of Turkish companies. The channel further claimed that negotiations are underway with a Bulgarian company to produce NATO standard shells for Ukraine.
Beyond citing the sources in the SBU, the channel did not provide any evidence to support its claims.
Nonetheless, the theory was spread throughout Russian media, with some Armenian outlets picking it up as well.
OC Media has reached out to the Azerbaijani Defence Ministry but has not received an answer as of publication.
Separately, a widely-circulated video on TikTok claimed that Azerbaijan was sending troops to fight in Ukraine against Russia, along with providing free fuel for the Ukrainian army. The fact-checking outlet Vox Ukraine rebutted the claims, saying there was no evidence of their veracity and repeated previously debunked theories about alleged Azerbaijani military support for Ukraine.
While rumours that Azerbaijan or Azerbaijani companies are preparing to send — or have already sent weapons to Ukraine — have persisted for years since the beginning of Russia’s full-scale invasion in 2022, Azerbaijani President Ilham Aliyev and other officials have repeatedly denied it.
Responding to the claims, an unnamed official source told the Azerbaijani pro-government media outlet Aze.media in March 2024 that ‘a hybrid information operation is being carried out against us. We did not send any weapons to Ukraine’.
‘There is an attempt to ruin our relations with Moscow, and we know well who is behind these attempts’, the source said, accusing Armenia of being the origin of the allegations.
In April 2024, Aliyev said that Azerbaijan had been asked to provide arms for Ukraine, but categorically denied that such deliveries were happening or would be in the future.
When asked at the time ‘what Azerbaijan can do for Ukraine’, Aliyev said, ‘nothing, absolutely nothing from a practical point of view. We have provided Ukraine with humanitarian and financial assistance worth more than €30 million ($35 million) […] nothing more than that’.
However, there has been speculation in recent weeks that Baku may be recalculating its position towards Ukraine in light of the now months-long period of sharp deterioration of relations between Azerbaijan and Russia.
The breakdown can be linked to the deadly crash of an Azerbaijan Airlines (AZAL) flight in December 2024, which Baku has blamed on Russian air defence, as well as the deaths of two ethnic Azerbaijanis during a Russian police raid in Yekaterinburg in June 2025.
Nate Ostiller
