Azerbaijan Threatens to Arm Ukraine if Russia Hits Baku-Linked Assets Again
Christine Casmiro
TheDefensePost
Azerbaijan has warned that it could lift its arms embargo on Kyiv if Russia keeps targeting energy infrastructure in Ukraine linked to the South Caucasus country, officials familiar with the matter informed the Azerbaijani news outlet Caliber.
The threat comes after recent Russian strikes inflicted damage on the state-owned Azerbaijani SOCAR oil depot in Ukraine’s Odesa region and caused casualties.
It follows after Moscow’s forces attacked a gas distribution station tied to the Trans-Balkan pipeline near Orlovka in late June, where Kyiv’s gas imports from Baku pass through.
Since the outbreak of the Russia-Ukraine war in 2022, Azerbaijan has refrained from transferring weapons to either side. Instead, it has sent over $40 million in humanitarian assistance to Ukraine.
Recently, Azerbaijani President Ilham Aliyev
signed an order to allocate a $2-million humanitarian aid package for Azerbaijani-made electrical equipment bound for the Ministry of Energy of Ukraine.
Azerbaijani Weapons
Moscow has ramped up its strikes on Ukraine’s energy infrastructure to cripple its economy, morale, and trade relations.
If it continues to include Baku-linked assets in its attacks, inside sources said that the country will respond to Russian aggression to protect its interests by sending weapons from its stockpile to Ukraine.
The South Caucasus state would likely send Soviet-era and Russian-made arms, which potentially include 2S1 Gvozdika and 2S3 Akatsiya self-propelled artillery systems, according to Defence Express.
