Azerbaijani president says Russian and German representatives held secret talks on war in Ukraine

Azerbaijani President Ilham Aliyev has said that former senior German and Russian officials held a secret meeting in Baku in mid-July to discuss possible ways of ending Russia's war against Ukraine.

Source: Bloomberg, citing Aliyev at a joint press conference with German Chancellor Friedrich Merz

Quote from Aliyev: "Our territory was used for such a meeting without our knowledge. I cannot comment on the details, as we were not present at the meeting. However, the flight data allows me to state that a secret meeting did take place in Baku."

Details: Aliyev said the meeting took place on 12-14 July.

He added that if the purpose of the meeting was to explore ways of ending the war between Russia and Ukraine, Azerbaijan could "only welcome" such efforts.

Bloomberg reported that Merz denied that his government had been involved in the engagements.

Quote from Merz: "I'm not aware of any such meeting."

Background:

• Following the outbreak of the war between Israel and Iran, planned trilateral talks involving Ukraine, the United States and Russia have been postponed.
• President Volodymyr Zelenskyy acknowledged that the US is currently focused on negotiations with Iran and that attention has shifted away from Ukraine.
• On 15 June, Zelenskyy said he had proposed meeting Kremlin leader Vladimir Putin at the G7 summit in France to discuss ending the war, but Russia "was not ready to speak".
• On 4 June, the Ukrainian president sent a letter to Putin proposing a bilateral meeting to end the war and said that Europe and the US should also be involved in the negotiations.
• US President Donald Trump supported the idea of a bilateral meeting between the leaders of Ukraine and Russia.
• Putin, however, said he had seen Zelenskyy's open letter and "sees no point in holding a meeting".
• On 5 July, informed sources told the Financial Times that Russia is unlikely to take part in any meaningful negotiations before February 2027. Putin reportedly believes that by then Russia will have occupied the whole of Donetsk Oblast and that the US will pressure Ukraine into making concessions to Russia.

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