Azerbaijan accused Russia of deliberately attacking its embassy in Kyiv.

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Ilham Aliyev stated that the attacks on the Azerbaijani diplomatic mission in Kyiv were deliberate. The Russian Foreign Ministry stated that this is not true, and that the Ukrainian leadership bears responsibility for the damage to the embassy buildings.

As reported by the "Caucasian Knot," last November, the Azerbaijani Foreign Ministry summoned Russian Ambassador to the Republic Mikhail Yevdokimov to deliver a note of protest. The ministry called the attacks on the country's diplomatic missions in Ukraine unacceptable and demanded an investigation.

Speaking at the Munich Security Conference on February 14, Azerbaijani President Ilham Aliyev stated that Baku had raised the issue of damage to the country's embassy in Ukraine "many times" during its contacts with Moscow, RBK reports.

According to him, after the first damage, Azerbaijan provided "Russian colleagues with all the coordinates of diplomatic missions," and also "made special statements, invited the ambassador, and issued a note." Moreover, Aliyev added, there were only three explosions and this constitutes an "unfriendly act."

Aliyev called the damage to the embassy "a deliberate attack on the diplomatic mission of Azerbaijan."

The Russian Foreign Ministry responded to Aliyev's statement the same day. According to the ministry, the Azerbaijani side's statement about a deliberate attack on the embassy is not true, Interfax reports.

The Foreign Ministry stated that Kyiv is placing military facilities, including air defense systems, in residential areas, thereby endangering the civilian population, and it is "the military-political leadership of Ukraine that must bear responsibility for any consequences of such criminal actions."

The ministry noted that back in November of last year, they expressed "sincere regret over the damage to the buildings and territory of the Azerbaijani diplomatic mission in Ukraine," but noted that "damage to the complex of buildings of the Azerbaijani diplomatic mission in Kyiv, in all likelihood, occurred as a result of the incorrect operation of the air defense systems of the Ukrainian armed forces, presumably the fall of a Patriot air defense missile."

This time, Baku "has been re-informed that the strikes are being carried out on legitimate military targets, including facilities of the Ukrainian military-industrial complex, including those located in Kyiv."

Relations between Moscow and Baku have noticeably worsened since the crash of an Azerbaijan Airlines plane with 67 people on board in Kazakhstan on December 25, 2024, while flying from Baku to Grozny. More details can be found in the "Caucasian Knot" report "Baku-Grozny Plane Crash" and in the article "Geopolitical Confrontation: What Led to the Crash of the AZAL Plane". Ethnic raids in Russia and retaliatory detentions of Russians in Azerbaijan have become a new round of deterioration in relations between the two countries. Baku accuses Russian authorities of extrajudicial reprisals against Azerbaijanis, and footage of the brutal detention of Russians in Baku appears to be a demonstrative response to Moscow's actions, according to the "Caucasian Knot" report "Crisis in relations between Azerbaijan and Russia".

Signs of easing tensions in relations between the two countries appeared only in October: the first meeting in a long time between Vladimir Putin and Ilham Aliyev took place on October 9 in Dushanbe, and on October 10, after the meeting, it became known that the executive director of Sputnik Azerbaijan, Igor Kartavykh, and one of the Azerbaijanis arrested in Russia were released. On October 19, Kartavykh flew to Russia. On October 25, the agency's editor-in-chief, Yevgeny Belousov, also arrived in Moscow, and on the same day, Yusif, a businessman from Voronezh and one of the leaders of the local diaspora, arrived in Baku Khalilov, who was arrested in the Russian Federation in a bribery case.

Also on July 1, a court in Baku arrested eight Russian citizens detained on charges of drug trafficking and cybercrimes. Moscow hopes that Baku will abandon excessive and unfair harshness towards the detained Russians, said Human Rights Commissioner Tatyana Moskalkova. On July 16, it became known that relatives of some of the Russians arrested in Baku were able to see them, and the Russian The consul called their conditions of detention good. The Russians' arrest period has been extended.