Verkhovna Rada MP: Ukrainian people grateful to Azerbaijan for support

Ukraine and Azerbaijan are strategic partners. This is enshrined in the National Security Strategy approved on September 14, 2020, as well as in the Joint Declaration on deepening strategic partnership signed on January 14, 2022, by the presidents of the two countries, Ilham Aliyev and Volodymyr Zelenskyy, Deputy of the Verkhovna Rada of Ukraine from the ruling Servant of the People party Valery Kolyukh told the East European bureau of Report.

“Azerbaijan lent its shoulder to Ukraine during the Russian aggression and provided us with important humanitarian aid. As of August alone, its volume exceeded 1,700 tons and continues to grow. This includes medicines, personal hygiene products, baby food, and other necessary materials and supplies. All this is distributed among the needy internally displaced persons in the Dnipropetrovsk, Vinnytsia, Cherkasy regions, and victims of Russian aggression in the Kharkiv, Mykolaiv and Zaporizhzhia regions,” said Kolyukh.

The Ukrainian MP also reminded that SOCAR had already joined the restoration of the city of Irpin and rebuilt the building of school No. 12. Azerbaijan is also considering options for its participation in the renewal of cultural facilities in Okhtyrka, Chernihiv and Kharkiv.

It is no less important that ethnic Azerbaijanis are fighting in the ranks of the Armed Forces of Ukraine. For example, on May 16, President of Ukraine Volodymyr Zelenskyy awarded Senior Lieutenant Kirill Agasiyev with the highest title “Hero of Ukraine.” Unfortunately, there are also dead among the Azerbaijanis of Ukraine. Here it is worth remembering Rafael Agayev, who died in April during the defense of Mariupol, and Karim Gulamov, who gave his life in July for the freedom of the Kherson fields.

“The Ukrainian people are sincerely grateful to the Azerbaijani people for the support, sympathy, and understanding that they never cease to provide us. Indeed, friends are known in trouble. Azerbaijan and Azerbaijanis have once again confirmed their devotion to friendship and partnership with Ukraine and Ukrainians,” said the Ukrainian MP.

Commenting on the recent Armenian provocations on the border of Azerbaijan with Armenia, he noted that Kyiv consistently supports the course of Baku and Yerevan towards a political and diplomatic settlement, based on the principle of territorial integrity, inviolability of borders and respect for sovereignty: “Ukraine is extremely interested in the complete and comprehensive normalization of the situation between Azerbaijan and Armenia with appropriate mutual respect for sovereignty.”