Aliyev confirms German and Russian representatives met secretly in Baku in mid-July to discuss ending the war in Ukraine

Azerbaijani President Ilham Aliyev indirectly confirmed that German and Russian representatives held a back-channel meeting in Baku to discuss ending the war in Ukraine.Speaking at a joint press conference with German Chancellor Friedrich Merz, Aliyev said four people arrived in Azerbaijan on July 12: Matthias Platzeck, former state premier of Brandenburg; Ronald Pofalla, former head of the Federal Chancellery; Viktor Zubkov, a former Russian prime minister; and Valery Fadeyev, chairman of Russia’s Presidential Human Rights Council.Zubkov departed on July 13, and the other three left a day later, Aliyev said. He said he had no information on whether the officials had been in contact with one another.“Our territory was used without our notification,” Aliyev said. “If this meeting can help end the war between Russia and Ukraine, we can only welcome it.”The German newspaper Die Zeit and broadcaster RBB’s Kontraste program reported on July 16 that Platzeck and Pofalla had traveled to Baku, and that Russian delegation members were present as well. According to the two outlets, the contacts may have been an informal continuation of the Petersburg Dialogue, a forum officially suspended after the start of the war in Ukraine.At Meduza, we are committed to transparency about our use of artificial intelligence in the newsroom. The story you’re reading was written by one of our living, breathing journalists and translated from Russian using an AI model configured to follow our strict editorial standards. This translation process is the result of extensive testing and refinements to ensure our English-language coverage is timely and accurate. A Meduza editor reviews every draft before publication.If you find any errors in this translation, please contact us at [email protected].To read Meduza’s exclusive content in English, please subscribe to our newsletter.