MOSCOW (Reuters) -Azerbaijan’s president on Sunday condemned Russian air strikes on Azerbaijani oil and gas facilities in Ukraine but said energy cooperation between the two countries would continue.
Azerbaijani President Ilham Aliyev spoke with his Ukrainian counterpart Volodymyr Zelenskiy by phone.
“During the conversation, both sides condemned the deliberate airstrikes by Russia on an oil storage facility owned by Azerbaijan’s SOCAR in Ukraine, as well as other Azerbaijani facilities and a gas compressor station transporting Azerbaijani gas to Ukraine,” Aliyev’s press service said in a statement.
“They emphasized their confidence that these attacks would not hinder energy cooperation between Azerbaijan and Ukraine.”
Earlier this week, Russia struck an oil depot owned by SOCAR and a gas pumping station used to import liquefied natural gas from the U.S. and Azerbaijan in Ukraine’s southern Odesa region, according to sources and Ukrainian officials.
In July, Ukraine pumped a test volume of Azerbaijani gas through the Transbalkan route for the first time and announced plans to significantly increase gas imports from Azerbaijan.
Ukraine’s infrastructure and energy facilities are frequently targeted by Russian forces, which have stepped up their drone and missile attacks on Ukrainian cities and towns in recent months.
(Reporting by ReutersEditing by Christina Fincher)
