The new alliance between Yerevan and Kiev

Since the start of Russia's special operation in Ukraine, Armenia's relationship with Kiev has been increasingly nurtured, also seen as a possible mediation to strengthen ties with the West. Until the ratification in recent days of the Rome Statute of the International Criminal Court and the now evident suspension of any action in favour of Russia.

Yerevan (AsiaNews) - A great rapprochement has recently been taking place between Ukraine and Armenia, in the redefinition of the roles of Moscow and Yerevan in the Eurasian alliance, from which the Armenians are distancing themselves due to the lack of support in conflict with Azerbaijan.

Ukrainian political observer Aleksandr Kovalenko, an expert on military issues in the "Information Contrast" group and in the Kiev security research center, commented on this evolution of relations in the context of the global conflict on his Telegram channel.

Last September, the summit of the first ladies and their spouses was held in Kiev, at which the wife of Armenian Prime Minister Nikol Pašinyan, Anna Akopyan, also showed up. Previously she had declined any invitation to participate in public meetings in Ukraine, but this time she had accompanied a shipment of humanitarian aid for the Ukrainians, despite the fact that the Armenians themselves are in great need of support at this stage, especially for the refugees from Nagorno Karabakh .

A little later, at the Granada summit, there was a direct meeting between Zelenskyj and Pašinyan, and in the Malta meeting on Crimea the secretary of the Security Council of Yerevan, Armen Grigoryan, with whom the leader had met of the presidential administration of Ukraine, Andrei Yermak. Kovalenko recalls that "in Ukrainian politics the Armenian lobby has always been very influential, more than the Azerbaijani one", and this was seen in the positions taken regarding the Karabakh issue.

The point of the rest is not even that of the evaluations on the Caucasian conflict, on which the Yerevan government had laid a tombstone well before the final outcome, leaving to the Armenians of Artsakh all the responsibility of keeping tension high until the last moment.

The real problem is Armenia's progressive detachment from Russia, and the new orientation towards Europe and the West, in which Kiev finds a much deeper harmony with the Armenians.

This pro-Western Armenian trend originates from the 44-day war in late 2020, well before the Russian invasion of Ukraine, when Yerevan failed to gain any real support from Moscow. From that moment on, Pašinyan systematically criticized all the initiatives of the CSTO, the Eurasian alliance controlled by the Russians, which had not lifted a finger in the conflict in Nagorno Karabakh.

Since the beginning of Russia's special operation in Ukraine, the relationship with Kiev has increasingly been fueled by Armenia, also seen as a possible mediation to strengthen ties with the West; and the Ukrainians themselves insisted on separating the Armenians from the Russians as much as possible.

This is a very concrete advantage, many details of which have been highlighted in recent days, among them the strong decrease in the smuggling of microchips through Armenia in favor of Russia, with great repercussions on military supplies and technologies.

Since the publication of sanctions against Russia, Armenians were initially among the most active in the supply of technologies purchased abroad, while since last November 14, when Armenia officially ratified the Rome Statute of the International Criminal Court, any action in Russia's favor can be considered exhausted, to the point of confirming the possible arrest of Vladimir Putin if he crossed the Russian-Armenian border, and Armenia's definitive exit from the CSTO, of which it has rejected any type of initiative and exercise.