Azerbaijan’s President Ilham Aliyev just threw a curveball by slamming Russia’s attacks on Ukraine’s energy grid while doubling down on support for Kyiv.
This story is a geopolitical chess game, with Azerbaijan stepping up humanitarian aid to Ukraine, condemning Russian strikes on Azeri-owned energy facilities, and celebrating a landmark peace deal with Armenia brokered by none other than President Donald Trump.
Breitbart reported that Azerbaijan and Armenia have been locked in a bitter territorial dispute for decades, with Russia failing to play peacemaker despite its regional influence.
Fast forward to Friday, when a game-changing trilateral meeting unfolded at the White House with Aliyev, Armenian Prime Minister Nikol Pashinyan, and Trump himself, hammering out a peace agreement that’s got everyone talking.
“The world has responded very positively to the trilateral meeting in Washington,” said Ukraine’s President Volodymyr Zelensky, adding a hopeful note with, “We hope everything will work.” Well, let’s not pop the champagne just yet—decades of bad blood don’t vanish overnight, even with a deal this big.
This peace accord isn’t just a win for the Caucasus; it’s a subtle jab at Moscow, especially since Armenia’s been fuming over Russia’s inaction during Azerbaijan’s takeover of Nagorno-Karabakh in late 2023 through a brutal siege.
On Sunday, Aliyev didn’t mince words, blasting Russian airstrikes targeting Ukraine’s energy infrastructure, particularly facilities owned by Azeri companies, including state-run ones.
He made it crystal clear that these attacks won’t derail Azerbaijan’s energy cooperation with Ukraine, showing a spine of steel against Moscow’s bullying tactics.
Zelensky was quick to express gratitude, thanking Aliyev for aiding in the repair of Ukraine’s battered energy grid and even tipping his hat to the Armenia peace deal.
“I informed about Russian strikes on our energy facilities,” Zelensky noted, calling it a deliberate move by Moscow to choke energy independence for Ukraine and Europe. That’s a bold claim, but when you’ve got foreign powers bombing your infrastructure, it’s hard to see it as anything but hostile.
Meanwhile, Azerbaijan’s beef with Russia isn’t new—tensions spiked in July over allegations of mistreatment of Azeris by Russian authorities, further souring relations.
Now, there’s talk of Azerbaijan possibly lifting its ban on sending weapons to Ukraine, with a stockpile of Soviet-era gear that could give Kyiv’s forces a much-needed edge.
But not everyone’s cheering—some critics are uneasy with the West cozying up to Aliyev, whose government has a less-than-stellar record on press freedom and opposition rights, earning one of the lowest press freedom scores globally.
Human rights activists also point to the Nagorno-Karabakh conflict as a dark chapter, alleging ethnic cleansing, while Aliyev’s regime has shut down offices of international groups like the U.N. and BBC for daring to criticize him.
Still, the European Union seems willing to look the other way, valuing Azerbaijan’s role in cutting reliance on Russian gas, and this new peace deal—coupled with pressure on Putin to end the Ukraine conflict—might just be the pragmatic play for now.