Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky announced on Wednesday that he spoke by phone with his Azerbaijani counterpart Ilham Aliev, who recently achieved a military victory in Nagorno-Karabakh, and addressed the issue of “territorial integrity”, according to AFP.
Volodymyr ZelenskyPhoto: Ukraine Presidency / Zuma Press / Profimedia
“We reaffirmed our commitment to the principles of state sovereignty and territorial integrity,” Zelenskiy said on Telegram, adding that he also “thanked” Aliev for the humanitarian aid given to Kyiv, “especially in the energy sector, in the context of rapprochement winter”.
It was the first telephone conversation between the Ukrainian president and his Azeri counterpart since the latter won a landslide victory over Armenian separatists in the Nagorno-Karabakh enclave.
Following Moscow’s annexation of its Crimea peninsula in 2014, followed by an armed conflict in the country’s east with Russian and pro-Russian forces, Ukraine faces a major Russian invasion from 2022 and fears a new bombing campaign against its infrastructure energy, intended to cause blackouts this winter.
Armenia, a rival of Azerbaijan, has traditionally been an ally of Russia, but relations between Moscow and Yerevan have become strained in recent months, even before the defeat of Nagorno-Karabakh separatists.
