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Hikmat Hajiyev: Baku is very vigilant on the sanctions story

01 December 2025 12:38 (UTC +04:00)

Since 2022, Baku has provided more than $40 million in assistance to Ukraine, including humanitarian supplies, reconstruction support and programmes for children affected by the war, said Hikmat Hajiyev, Assistant to the President of Azerbaijan - Head of the Foreign Policy Affairs Department of the Presidential Administration of Azerbaijan, in an interview with EU Today in Brussels, APA reports.

“We are continuing the programme of rehabilitation of Ukrainian children,” he noted, pointing to regular groups received in Azerbaijan for social and psychological support.

On the war in Ukraine, Hajiyev reiterated that Azerbaijan would not become involved militarily. “Azerbaijan upfront… is not engaged and will not engage in any military component of this conflict,” he said.

On sanctions, he rejected suggestions that Azerbaijan is being used to circumvent Western measures against Russia. Hajiyev said Baku is “very vigilant on the sanctions story” and argued that trade data did not show any sharp post-2022 increase in turnover with Russia.

By contrast, he pointed to Armenia’s strong trade growth with Russia and characterised it as re-export rather than new industrial output, remarking that Armenia “is not in a capacity to produce Mercedes or Apples or Samsungs”.