Azernews.Az

BAKU – Ukraine's position on the settlement of the Armenia-Azerbaijan conflict remains unchanged and is based on respect for Azerbaijan's territorial integrity within the country’s internationally recognized borders, the Ukrainian ambassador in Baku has said.

The statement came after Ukraine’s Image business magazine published biased articles about the long-standing Nagorno Karabakh dispute. The stories contained anti-Azerbaijani content and false data.

"The media is independent and publishes whatever it wants to," Ambassador Alexander Mishchenko told the press. "But the task of diplomats is to give them a certain point of view."

Mishchenko added that Ukraine-Azerbaijan relations are based on a "real strategic partnership".

Baku has issued a protest to the Ukrainian foreign ministry, saying the magazine articles are libelous and distort Azerbaijan’s history.

Azerbaijan and Armenia fought a war over Nagorno Karabakh that emerged before the 1991 collapse of the Soviet Union and ended with the signing of a fragile ceasefire in 1994. 20 percent of Azerbaijan’s territory has been under Armenian occupation since the war. OSCE-brokered peace talks have been largely fruitless so far.