A gesture of support for Ukraine from Azerbaijani President Ilham Aliyev has caused anger in Russian propaganda circles. During the III Shusha Global Media Forum, Ukrainian journalist Elena Kurbanova presented Aliyev with Ukrainian Armed Forces chevrons, to which he responded with words of gratitude: "Thank you for what you are doing. Keep up the good work."

Earlier, Aliyev, answering a question from another journalist from Ukraine, Dmitry Gordon, called on Kyiv "not to put up with the occupation of its territories."

In addition, within the framework of the media forum, Ilham Aliyev said that Azerbaijan is preparing documents to submit to international courts against Russia in connection with the crash of the AZAL plane. Recall that on December 25, 2024, the Azerbaijan Airlines plane, flying from Baku to Grozny, crashed near the city of Aktau in Kazakhstan. 38 people died, 29 were rescued.

The reasons for the plane crash have caused a lot of discussion, but the dominant version is that it came under fire from Russian air defense systems during an attack by Ukrainian drones on the territory of Chechnya. This is the opinion of Azerbaijani President Ilham Aliyev, in connection with which he demanded that Russia admit guilt, punish the perpetrators and pay compensation.

On February 4, the Reuters news agency, citing sources in the Azerbaijani government, reported that Baku has evidence of the downing of the Embraer airliner by the Russian Pantsir air defense system, namely a fragment of a missile. Soon after, it became known that the Azerbaijani authorities intended to file a lawsuit in an international court over the plane crash.