Azerbaijan summoned Russian Ambassador Mikhail Yevdokimov on July 6 and handed him a protest note over a July 5 drone strike on a fuel station belonging to SOCAR, the State Oil Company of Azerbaijan Republic, in Ukraine’s Mykolaiv region, Reuters reported. The Foreign Ministry said the recurrence of such attacks “indicates the deliberate nature of these attacks.”
Two Shahed drones struck the SOCAR station in the village of Nechaiane, around 30 kilometers from Mykolaiv on the road to Odesa, at 19:16 and 19:33 on July 5, Ukrainska Pravda reported. The strikes damaged the station’s administrative building; no injuries were reported.
Baku said the attack was not isolated, citing earlier strikes on a SOCAR gas compressor station and an oil depot in Odesa, as well as damage to Azerbaijan’s embassy in Kyiv and honorary consulate in Kharkiv, Reuters reported. The ministry called on Russia to meet its Vienna Convention obligations. Russia had not responded as of July 6, according to Reuters.
Ukrainska Pravda, citing a Ukrainian law-enforcement source, reported that monitoring channels had warned on July 3 of planned Russian strikes on logistics facilities, freight transport and fuel stations up to 150 kilometers behind the front line, with the SOCAR complex among identified targets.
The strike underscores how attacks on Ukrainian fuel infrastructure are drawing in assets of third states still trying to maintain ties with both Moscow and Kyiv.
