Zelensky met with Aliyev in Azerbaijan

President of Ukraine Vladimir Zelensky arrived in Azerbaijan on a working visit and met with the country's President Ilham Aliyev.

The meeting between Aliyev and Zelensky is taking place in the city of Gabala, according to the website of the President of Azerbaijan. Aliyev published photographs of the meeting.

Zelensky wrote that he held “important negotiations” with Aliyev. “Mutual respect and cooperation that strengthen both our peoples,” added the President of Ukraine, who also published the photo.

• Ukraine began to move closer to Azerbaijan against the backdrop of cooling relations between Moscow and Baku after the crash of an Azerbaijan Airlines plane in December 2024. In January 2025, Zelensky and Aliyev met at the World Economic Forum in Davos, and in August they called each other to condemn “targeted Russian airstrikes” on the oil depot of the Azerbaijani company SOCAR in Ukraine.
• In February 2026, the building of the Azerbaijani embassy in Kyiv came under Russian attack. Aliyev noted that this was happening for the third time and accused Moscow of a “deliberate attack” on the diplomatic mission.