Volodymyr Zelenskyy’s first wartime visit to Azerbaijan produced six bilateral documents, with Kyiv and Baku placing security, energy resilience and humanitarian support at the centre of a broader strategic relationship.
Ukraine and Azerbaijan have moved to deepen security and energy cooperation during President Volodymyr Zelenskyy’s visit to Gabala, where he met President Ilham Aliyev for talks focused on defence cooperation, energy resilience and humanitarian support.
The visit, confirmed by both presidential offices on 25 April, produced six bilateral documents, including agreements linked to defence cooperation. Kyiv described the talks as substantive and said the leaders met both one-to-one and in an expanded format. The Azerbaijani presidency separately confirmed that the two leaders held meetings in Gabala and delivered press statements after the discussions.
For Ukraine, the visit comes at a time when Kyiv is seeking to widen its network of wartime partnerships beyond its established European and transatlantic channels. Azerbaijan occupies a strategic position in the South Caucasus, with established energy links to Europe, close relations with Turkey, and a foreign policy that has sought to preserve working relations across competing regional alignments.
Zelenskyy said security was the main priority in the discussions, placing particular emphasis on the defence-industrial sector. In his press statement after the talks, he said Ukraine had demonstrated resilience during the war and was now sharing its experience with partners. He also referred to cooperation and co-production as areas that could strengthen both countries’ security.
The timing of the visit is significant. Earlier on 25 April, Zelenskyy also met a Ukrainian expert team in Azerbaijan that is working on protection against aerial threats. The team is sharing experience in defending critical and civilian infrastructure from drones and other forms of air attack. Kyiv said the specialists were assessing existing capabilities and identifying future areas of cooperation under an international defence cooperation programme initiated by Ukraine.
That element gives the visit a practical defence dimension. Ukraine’s experience of large-scale missile and drone attacks has made air defence, electronic warfare, infrastructure protection and distributed resilience central to its military and civil defence planning. For Azerbaijan, which has invested heavily in modern military capabilities and has its own recent operational experience, cooperation with Ukraine offers access to lessons from a continuing high-intensity war.
Energy was the second major theme. Zelenskyy thanked Azerbaijan for 11 packages of energy assistance provided during the war, including support through difficult winter conditions. Both sides also discussed the continuation of energy cooperation and the expansion of trade. Aliyev said bilateral trade had exceeded $500 million and expressed the view that it could grow further.
The energy discussion has wider implications for Europe. Azerbaijan has become more important to the European energy market since Russia’s full-scale invasion of Ukraine altered supply patterns and accelerated efforts to reduce dependence on Russian energy. For Kyiv, cooperation with Baku offers a link to a country that is both an energy supplier and a South Caucasus actor with direct channels to several important regional capitals.
Humanitarian cooperation was also included in the talks. Zelenskyy thanked Azerbaijan for hosting more than 500 Ukrainian children from frontline regions. The two leaders also discussed education, including the presence of Azerbaijani students in Ukraine, and agreed to continue cooperation in that field.
The visit also carried a diplomatic message. Zelenskyy said Ukraine was ready for trilateral negotiations in Azerbaijan if Russia was prepared for diplomacy. He referred to previous talks in Turkey and with American partners in Switzerland, while stating that Kyiv would be ready for a similar format in Azerbaijan.
That proposal should be read cautiously. It does not indicate the existence of an agreed negotiation track, and no Russian acceptance was announced in the material released by the Ukrainian or Azerbaijani sides. However, it does show that Kyiv is prepared to use Baku as a possible diplomatic venue, reflecting Azerbaijan’s position as a state with established contacts across regional and international lines.
The Gabala meeting therefore has more than one layer. At the bilateral level, it strengthens Ukraine-Azerbaijan cooperation in security, energy and humanitarian affairs. At the regional level, it places Azerbaijan more visibly within Ukraine’s search for practical partnerships outside the EU and NATO framework. At the wider strategic level, it reflects Kyiv’s effort to make its wartime diplomacy more diversified, drawing in states that can offer specific capabilities, access, political channels or energy relevance.
For Azerbaijan, the visit reinforces its role as a South Caucasus actor able to engage Ukraine while maintaining a separate regional agenda. For Ukraine, it broadens the map of wartime cooperation at a point when air defence, energy resilience and diplomatic reach remain central to national security.
