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Akbar Novruz

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The Russian Foreign Ministry has expressed regret over the damage caused to the building of the Azerbaijani embassy in Kyiv following a missile strike on the Ukrainian capital on November 14.

Azernews reports this, citing the official statement of the Russian MFA.

According to the information, Russian Deputy Foreign Minister Mikhail Galuzin held a meeting with Azerbaijan’s Ambassador to Russia, Rahman Mustafayev. During the discussions, Russian officials noted that the Azerbaijani side's appeal dated November 14 concerning the damage to the embassy’s buildings, property and surrounding territory had been “carefully considered by the competent Russian agencies.”

“The Russian side expresses its sincere regret over the incident,” the MFA said in its statement.

The meeting also reaffirmed the mutual intention to continue developing bilateral relations and touched on the schedule of upcoming high-level contacts. “Successes in the development of bilateral economic cooperation and the importance of fully restoring cultural and humanitarian ties were noted,” the Russian Foreign Ministry added.

According to the Russian MFA, “regional issues, including the possible assistance of the Russian side to the normalization of Azerbaijani-Armenian relations on the basis of the complex of trilateral high-level agreements reached in 2020–2022, were also discussed separately. Issues of maintaining the rhythmic work of the ‘3+3’ Regional Cooperation Platform were considered.”

Earlier, the Azerbaijani Foreign Ministry reported that on November 14, Russian Ambassador to Baku Mikhail Yevdokimov was summoned to the ministry and presented with a formal note of protest. During that meeting, the Azerbaijani side “strongly protested against the landing of one of the Iskander missiles on the territory of the Embassy” amid missile and drone strikes on Kyiv at around 1:00 a.m. on November 14.

The Azerbaijani MFA noted that the explosion caused significant damage, stating that “part of the fence of the embassy territory was completely destroyed, and structures, service vehicles, an administrative building and the consular department of the Embassy were damaged.”