A citizen of Azerbaijan received a sentence for participating in battles in Ukraine.

A court in Azerbaijan sentenced Fuad Rafibeyli to four years in prison for participating in hostilities in Ukraine after becoming a soldier in the Russian army.

As reported by "Caucasian Knot", Azerbaijani legislation does not allow citizens of the country to participate in armed conflicts on the territory of other states. Therefore, Azerbaijani volunteers who went to Ukraine may be prosecuted at home under the article on mercenarism, lawyers interviewed by "Caucasian Knot" indicated.

The court in Lankaran sentenced Fuad Rafibeyli to four years in prison on September 15, finding him guilty of "participating abroad in the activities of armed formations not provided for by law," APA reported the same day.

According to the indictment, in 2023, Fuad Rafibeyli traveled to Russia and applied to the military commissariat at his place of stay, after which he joined the ranks of the Russian army. After some time, he was captured by Ukrainian soldiers and extradited to Azerbaijan after 21 months, writes haqqin.az.

Azerbaijanis are participating in combat operations on both sides in the armed conflict between Russia and Ukraine, said Telman Abilov, head of the NGO "Military Lawyers," to "Caucasian Knot" in February 2026.

The number of Azerbaijanis participating in combat operations on the side of Russia has increased.

"If at the very beginning of the conflict Azerbaijanis fought more on the Ukrainian side, the situation has radically changed since then. [...] In the last 2-3 years, there has been an increase in the number of Azerbaijanis participating in combat operations on the side of Russia," Abilov said, naming the main reasons for Azerbaijanis' participation in the fighting on the side of Russia as material need and pressure from Russian security forces.

The Rafibeyli case continued the trend of prosecuting participants in the fighting in Ukraine

Recall that on February 3, the State Security Service of Azerbaijan reported the arrest of four citizens of Azerbaijan - Real Nabiyev, Faris Huseynov, Ali Mamedov, and Murov Mirgashimli - who, according to the investigation, participated in combat operations "under the control of armed formations of Russia and Ukraine."

Earlier, in December 2025, a court in Ganja sentenced Azerbaijani native Ismail Hasanov to 3.5 years in prison, who was recruited from a Russian colony into the Wagner PMC and went to the combat zone in Ukraine, receiving promises of release, money, and Russian citizenship.

There have been multiple reports of the deaths of combatants from Azerbaijan. For example, in March 2022, a 29-year-old sniper, Elnur Gasanov, was killed near Kyiv. He participated in the fighting on the side of Ukraine from the first days of the Russian military operation and died during a mortar shelling. Gasanov's body was returned to his family and buried in the Goranboy district of Azerbaijan.

As of May 2023, according to official data, 26 natives of Azerbaijan who participated in the fighting on the side of Ukrainian forces have died. The Ukrainian ambassador to Azerbaijan explained that these were ethnic Azerbaijanis living in Ukraine.