Voice of America refutes allegations of Azerbaijan’s support for Russia against Ukraine

A video showing a military convoy travelling along a road that looks deserted is circulating on the internet.

The user who shared the video footage said that this is military aid sent by Azerbaijan to Russia to support its war against Ukraine. The 22-second video has no sound and focuses only on the convoy, zooming in and out to capture the scale of the cargo. Flags indicating the country of origin of vehicles are not used.

Moreover, the user noted that Azerbaijan renders military assistance to Russia to fight against Ukraine. However, the footage does not have links confirming the information.

The user reposted the video footage from the Nagorno Karabakh Observer (NK Observer) on X, as this can be seen from the bottom of the image in the post. In this post, the description differs from the user's statement. According to NK Observer, the video footage was used to inform about the “withdrawal of vehicles and equipment of the Russian peacekeeping contingent in Karabakh through Azerbaijan”.

On the other hand, while using one of the frames from the video footage, there is an article by the Armenian News.am, which has the same information published by NK Observer in X. In this article, Armenia refers to a publication disseminated by the Spokesperson for the Armenian Foreign Ministry Anna Naghdalyan. In her post, Naghdalyan notes that “this video footage shows the withdrawal of Russian peacekeepers from Karabakh after the ethnic cleansing of the Armenian indigenous population by Azerbaijan”.

The reverse video search led us to the Facebook page of the Azerbaijani Baku News agency, which reports that the video footage shows peacekeepers leaving Azerbaijan. The video footage was also published on the Sputnik Azerbaijan Instagram account - “the images show the withdrawal of the Russian peacekeeping group from Karabakh”.

Azerbaijan launched a military offensive to regain the territory of Karabakh in mid-September 2023. In this context and due to historical relations with Armenia, Russia sent a peacekeeping mission to evacuate civilians and render the necessary assistance. The displaced people moved to Armenia, which had supported the separatists for decades and received more than half of the displaced people.

The other side of the conflict is Azerbaijan, which supported Ukraine during its conflict with Russia. For example, Azerbaijan announced the sending of humanitarian aid to restore power supply in affected areas in December 2022. At the same time, the Turkish Hürriyet Daily News notes that “the Azerbaijani press is one of the most pro-Ukrainian one among three countries in the South Caucasus: Armenia, Azerbaijan and Georgia”. “The majority of Azerbaijanis support Ukraine because they believe that Ukrainians supported Azerbaijan’s territorial integrity”.

Finally, there are also no reports in the press that Azerbaijan allegedly rendered military assistance to Russia.

According to the Voice of America, the video footage demonstrating the transfer of military aid from Azerbaijan to Russia is a lie. Official information associated with the video footage shows that Russian peacekeeping forces are withdrawing from Karabakh, where they have been stationed since September 2023.

Source: Voice of America Spanish Service