Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyi has accused Russia of ‘deliberately’ attacking a petrol depot in Odesa Oblast belonging to Azerbaijan’s state-run SOCAR oil company. Zelenskyi said it appeared to be ‘an attack not only on us but also on our relations and energy security’.
The comments came ahead of Zelenskyi’s meeting with US President Donald Trump and European leaders in Washington on Monday.
Overnight on Sunday, the facility was struck by Russian drones, causing widespread damage and reportedly seriously injuring four SOCAR employees.
It was the second time the SOCAR depot had been hit in August.
On Monday, Ukrainian Foreign Minister Andrii Sybiha echoed the same sentiment, saying ‘Moscow does this on purpose, acting against Azerbaijan’s interests’.
‘This once again demonstrates the importance of the new level of cooperation between Ukraine and Azerbaijan, as well as the need for appropriate diplomatic and legal responses to such attacks’.
That same day, Azerbaijani MP Rasim Musabeyov urged Baku to respond with more than just statements, and actually send weapons to Ukraine.
‘I believe we can lift the embargo on arms sales to Ukraine, and this step should be taken. We must act without paying attention to what Russia says’, Musabeyov said.
He added that Azerbaijan could sell Ukraine both Soviet-era weapons systems and arms captured from Armenia during recent conflicts.
‘But I emphasise once again: there is no need to engage in any kind of verbal exchange with [Russia]. If they act, we must respond with action’.
Also on Monday, Ukrainian Parliamentary Speaker Ruslan Stefanchuk held a call with his Azerbaijani counterpart Sahiba Gafarova, during which he also raised the issue of strikes on the SOCAR facility.
‘I also expressed Ukraine’s solidarity with Azerbaijan in light of the repressions against Azerbaijanis in Russia and the attacks on SOCAR facilities in Ukraine. These acts are part of a broader chain of aggression that we firmly condemn’, Stefanchuk wrote on X.
Gafarova did not mention the SOCAR attack in her readout of the call. Earlier this year, she made headlines after being awarded the Order of Friendship by Russian President Vladimir Putin for ‘her services in strengthening Russian–Azerbaijani relations’.
The strike on the SOCAR facility comes at a low point in Azerbaijan’s relations with Russia, fueled by 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.
Since then, there have been a series of apparent tit-for-tat arrests in both countries, a trend that continued in recent days — the pro-government media outlet APA reported on Monday that prominent Azerbaijani businessperson Yusif Khalilov had been arrested in the city of Voronezh for allegedly trying to bribe a doctor so that his son would not be drafted into the Russian army.
Nate Ostiller
