BAKU — Azerbaijan’s Foreign Ministry took formal diplomatic action Monday, calling in Russia’s ambassador to lodge a protest over what it characterized as a Russian drone attack on a fuel station owned by the state oil and gas company SOCAR, located in Ukraine’s Mykolaiv region. The strike occurred on Sunday.
Russia has been targeting fuel stations across Ukraine as a countermeasure against Kyiv’s growing campaign striking energy infrastructure inside Russia — attacks that have led to fuel shortages across numerous Russian regions.
Azerbaijan’s Foreign Ministry noted that this was not an isolated incident, pointing out that other SOCAR-operated facilities in Ukraine — including an oil storage depot in Odesa — had already suffered damage in earlier military strikes.
“The continuation of such incidents, despite repeated warnings, indicates the deliberate nature of these attacks,” the ministry stated in an official release.
As of Monday, Russia had not issued any public response to Azerbaijan’s diplomatic complaint or the allegations made against it.
Since Russia launched its large-scale military invasion of Ukraine in February 2022, Azerbaijan has worked to preserve its relationships with both Moscow and Kyiv. The country has provided humanitarian assistance to Ukraine while stopping short of joining the Western-led sanctions imposed on Russia.
