Ukraine signs pacts with Azerbaijan in drone push

KYIV - Ukraine and Azerbaijan signed six cooperation agreements on Saturday, President Volodymyr Zelensky said, as he pushes to share Kyiv's drone expertise amid the Middle East war.

Zelensky has clinched several defence deals with Gulf countries that suffered Iranian drone attacks with Kyiv offering its experience and expertise after more than four years of relentless Russian strikes.

"We have signed six documents today," said Zelensky in the Azerbaijan capital Baku, without specifying which fields.

"Today, the number one area is security. This concerns the defence-industrial complex," he said. "We have shared our experience in countering the aggressor today".

Speaking alongside Azerbaijani counterpart Ilham Aliyev, Zelensky said Ukrainian drone experts were already working in Azerbaijan, a former Soviet republic on the Caspian Sea that borders southern Russia.

In early March, drones launched from Iran hit an Azerbaijani airport and exploded near a school, wounding four people and raising fears of a spillover of the conflict into the Caucasus.

Since then, already tepid relations between Baku and Tehran have declined further.

The Ukrainian president also said he was ready to hold trilateral talks on ending the war with Russia in Azerbaijan, if Moscow showed a willingness to do so.

"We shared with the president of Azerbaijan that we are ready for trilateral talks," said Zelensky.

Azerbaijan repeatedly expressed support for Ukraine's territorial integrity and sent humanitarian aid after the Russian invasion in 2022.

Ties between Moscow and Baku have cooled over the past year, after an Azerbaijani passenger plane was mistakenly hit by a Russian anti-aircraft missile in 2024, causing a crash that killed 38.