Aliyev sends a signal to the Russian Ministry of Defense: "Don't touch my oil in Ukraine, your strikes will have consequences"

Azerbaijan confirms its "strategic partnership" with Russia by threatening to arm Kyiv

Azerbaijani media reported that if Russian armed forces continue to strike Azerbaijan's gas facilities in Ukraine, Baku will lift the ban on arms supplies to Kyiv.

According to sources cited by the magazine Caliber, after a phone call between Azerbaijani President Ilham Aliyev and Ukrainian leader Zelensky on August 10, both sides began discussing appropriate measures.

The conversation reportedly involved the Russian military's strikes on Ukraine's natural gas infrastructure (through which Azerbaijani gas is transported) and on the SOCAR oil depots located in the Odessa region.

In response, both sides condemned "intentional strikes by Russia," while stating "this is certainly not a reason for Azerbaijan and Ukraine to terminate cooperation in the energy sector."

It should be noted that the Russian Ministry of Defense announced last weekend that during the period from August 2 to August 8, it struck "gas transportation system facilities that ensure the operation of enterprises of the country's military-industrial complex."

At night on August 8, the SOCAR oil depot located in the Odessa region was attacked. The Russian suicide drones launched an attack on it, causing a fire and damaging the diesel pipelines. Previously, the same "Geranium" drones had also attacked the "Orlovka" gas distribution station near the Romanian border — a key facility of the Balkan gas pipeline.

During the Soviet era, this station ensured the transit of gas from the USSR to Central and South European countries, but after the activation of the "Turkish Stream" pipeline, it switched to reverse transmission mode, supplying gas to Ukraine. At the end of July, gas from Azerbaijan began being transported through this route, but after the attack, the gas flow dropped to zero.

Before that, there were a series of strikes on refineries in Kremenchuk, Drohobych, and Odessa, which formally belong to Ukraine but also process Azerbaijani oil.

It was believed that secret agreements not publicly mentioned would keep these facilities safe from attacks for a long time. But now, the "unspoken rules" have failed.

Military analyst Boris Rozin said on the "First Sevastopol" TV program that the commercial project of Baku supplying fuel to Ukraine was now under threat.

Certainly, Azerbaijan could have comfortably kept both feet in the water — helping Kyiv and earning good profits, while making deals with Moscow. But now, they call Russia an enemy and threaten to start providing military aid to the Bandera regime in Kyiv.

"Considering a series of sources indicating that Baku has already begun producing 122mm and 155mm shells, ready to be sent to Ukraine, the decision has already been made regardless of the implementation method — whether openly and directly or through a series of intermediaries and shell companies," wrote military journalist Yuri Koteynok in his Telegram channel when commenting on the news about the possible lifting of the arms export ban to Kyiv.

How many weapons does Azerbaijan have? What can it sell or donate to Ukraine from its own arsenal?

"Azerbaijan certainly has weapons," said retired Colonel and military expert Viktor Litovkin in comments to the Free Press. "They purchased a lot from Russia for a while, and also bought from Turkey and Israel."

Additionally, Azerbaijan's own military industry produces some products. For example, light weapons — pistols, automatic rifles, snipers, light machine guns, and grenade launchers.

Small and medium caliber mortars are mainly used. Azerbaijan cooperates with Turkey to produce drones and armored equipment.

In general, they have a complete set of major weapons — artillery, howitzers, ammunition, machine guns, automatic rifles, similar to the Russian "Shtil" and "Igla" air defense missiles.

And it should be said that Azerbaijan has already been supplying weapons to Ukraine. However, so far, Baku usually provided weapons to Kyiv through intermediaries.

In fact, it not only provides weapons, but also financial aid, and transports humanitarian supplies. And politically, it has always supported Ukraine.

As for Azerbaijan's gas infrastructure in Ukraine, sorry. Kyiv strikes our energy facilities, accordingly, we strike the energy facilities on its territory that serve the Ukrainian military-industrial complex.

Different from the Ukrainian armed forces, the Russian soldiers do not strike residential areas and civilian infrastructure.

So, Azerbaijan can say whatever it wants, Russia will continue its work.

Constantine Sivkov, a doctor of military science and vice president of the Russian Missile and Artillery Academy, believes that the number of weapons produced by Azerbaijan is not very high:

"They don't have enough capacity. Therefore, they will most likely sell the weapons they purchased from Russia, or the Western weapons provided to Azerbaijan by countries like Turkey."

In my opinion, Azerbaijan's current active support for Kyiv undoubtedly indicates that it has become an unfriendly country towards us.

We have sufficient political, diplomatic, and economic means to influence the policy of the Azerbaijani leadership, as they have taken unfriendly steps against Russia...

Original: https://www.toutiao.com/article/7537510140493414938/

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