President Recep Tayyip Erdogan congratulated President Ilham Aliyev on his birthday anniversary and wished him new successes in his activities for the prosperity and development of Azerbaijan and the best of health in his video message.

Erdogan highlighted Azerbaijan’s success in the 44-day Nagorno-Karabakh war under the leadership of Supreme Commander-in-Chief Ilham Aliyev. 

A one-on-one meeting has got underway between President of the Republic of Azerbaijan Ilham Aliyev and President of the European Council Charles Michel in Brussels, Report informs via Azertag.

President of the European Council Charles Michel welcomed President Ilham Aliyev.

They then posed for photos.

The Azerbaijani Ministry of Defense presented a review of the events of last week.

Witness testimony and videos obtained by The New York Times show how Russian paratroopers executed at least eight Ukrainian men in a Kyiv suburb on March 4, a potential war crime, Report informs, citing news agency.

Security camera footage obtained by The Times shows that the soldiers, like those who were ambushed in late February, were paratroopers. The video shows them driving vehicles — such as the BMD-2, BMD-3 and BMD-4 designs — that are used almost exclusively by the Russian Airborne Forces, according to experts from the International Institute for Strategic Studies and the Royal United Services Institute.

The paratroopers patrolled the area, conducting house-to-house searches and operating in and out of 144 Yablunska Street, a four-story office building that the Russians turned into a base and field hospital.

About 300 yards from that base, at 31 Yablunska Street, Ivan Skyba, a 43-year-old builder, and five other fighters had been manning a makeshift checkpoint when the Russians returned. They had a grenade, bulletproof vests and a rifle between them, Mr. Skyba told The Times.

Warned via radio that Russians were back in Bucha and moving in their direction, they hid in the house beside the checkpoint, along with the homeowner, Valera Kotenko, 53, who had been bringing the fighters tea and coffee, Mr. Skyba said.

They were joined later by two more fighters, Andriy Dvornikov and Denys Rudenko, the man wearing the blue sweatshirt in the video.

The men sheltered there overnight. By the morning of March 4, they realized that an escape was impossible. “We are surrounded,” Mr. Rudenko wrote to his friend. “For now we are hiding. They are shooting from armored vehicles and heavy caliber.”

The witnesses said they saw the group of captives in the parking lot in front of the Russian base with shirts pulled over their heads. Yura Razhik, 57, who lives in front of the office building, said some had their hands tied. The Russian soldiers made them kneel down and then shot one of the men, Vitaliy Karpenko, 28, almost immediately, Mr. Skyba said. Mr. Razhik said he also witnessed the shooting.

Mr. Skyba and another captive, Andriy Verbovyi, were then taken inside the building, he said, where they were questioned and beaten before Mr. Verbovyi was shot and killed. The soldiers took Mr. Skyba back to the parking lot, where the other checkpoint guards were still being held.

At one point, one of the checkpoint guards confessed to the Russians that they were fighters, Mr. Skyba said, and that man was eventually let go. He is now under investigation by Ukrainian authorities, according to a local military commander and investigators; a government document seen by The Times specifies it is for “high treason.”

“I was shot and I fell down. The bullet went into my side,” Mr. Skyba said. Photos he shared of his injuries show an entry and exit wound in the left side of his abdomen. A doctor in Bucha who treated his injury and a medical report reviewed by The Times confirmed the injury.

“I fell down and I pretended to be dead,” he said. “I didn’t move and didn’t breathe. It was cold outside and you could see people’s breath.”

The bodies of the men killed in the parking lot and inside the building were brought to the courtyard and, together with the six other victims, would lie there for nearly a month.

Four weeks later, after Russian forces had withdrawn from Bucha, Times reporters visited the scene of the executions. The wall and steps of the building were pockmarked by bullet holes. On the other side of the courtyard, scattered a few feet from where the bodies lay, were spent 7.62x54R cartridge casings, used in the Soviet-designed PK-series machine guns and Dragunov sniper rifles commonly used by Russian troops. The Times also found an unfired 7.62x54R round inside the building.

Engineering work continues in the territories liberated as a result of the Patriotic War, which ended with the victory of the Azerbaijan Army under the command of the President of the Republic of Azerbaijan, Supreme Commander-in-Chief of the Armed Forces, Mr. Ilham Aliyev, Report informs, citing Defense Ministry.

Units and subunits of the Engineering Troops of the Azerbaijan Army clear roads of mines and improve them to ensure the safe and uninterrupted movement of vehicles, carry out work on strengthening combat positions and trenches, as well as lay new supply roads to our units stationed in mountainous and difficult terrain.

Starting from May 1 to May 19, more than 950 hectares of territory were completely cleared of mines and unexploded ordnance as a result of the activities carried out by the engineer-sapper units in the liberated territories.

To date, more than 17,200 hectares of area in the liberated territories have been cleared of mines and unexploded ordnance by the engineer-sapper units. In total, more than 6000 anti-personnel mines, more than 2100 anti-tank mines, and more than 9400 unexploded ordnances have been detected and neutralized.

The main efforts are aimed at demining settlements, sowing plots, roads, and infrastructure facilities in the liberated territories. In total, more than 140 km of new supply roads have been laid to the positions of Azerbaijan Army Units stationed in mountainous and difficult terrain.

Other necessary activities on detecting and neutralizing mines and unexploded ordnance, as well as engineering support, continue in the liberated territories.

Representatives of various countries participating in the “Anatolian Phoenix-2022” International Search and Rescue Exercises, got acquainted with the areas where flight tasks will be fulfilled, according to the Azerbaijani Defense Ministry.

Crimean Tatars living in Baku have visited the Alley of Martyrs, Report informs.

The visit is timed to the Day of Remembrance of the victims of the deportation of the Crimean Tatars on May 18, 1944.

“Today is a black date in the memory of every Tatar,” said Elvina Murzaeva, who lives in Baku. “Every year, part of the Crimean Tatars living here gather on the Alley of Martyrs, because those who died for the freedom of Azerbaijan are martyrs, just like those who died during the deportation in 1944.”

About 200,000 Crimean Tatars were deported at that time. “There were mostly old people, children and women, because the men were all at the front. Some 46% of the deportees died. The men who returned from the front were looking for their families in the places of deportation for a long time. My grandparents were also deported, I myself was born in Uzbekistan,” said Murzaeva.

One of the witnesses of those events is a resident of Baku Mammad Ibrahimov. At the time of his deportation from the Crimea in 1944, he was only two years old.

Ibrahimov and his parents were expelled from the Crimea to Uzbekistan. In 1975 he moved to Baku and worked at various institutes of the Academy of Sciences.

“I remember what the bombings were like in those years, we lived in dugouts right on the front line. My parents told me that when bombs were thrown and planes flew, I shouted “Explosions! Explosions!… And in the train cars, when we were transported in trains, there were a lot of diseases, I had rickets, there were sores all over my body,” he recalls the events of those days.

On May 18, the Minister of Defense of the Republic of Azerbaijan, Colonel General Zakir Hasanov, and the leadership of the Ministry attended comprehensive training held with the Azerbaijan Army’s Signal units and subunits.

Report informs, citing the Ministry of Defense, that in the field control points, the Minister of Defense, who inquired about the organization and progress of the training, was presented with communications equipment available in the armament of the units.

It was reported that during the training tasks of organizing a unified communications system, as well as implementing electronic warfare measures were successfully fulfilled.

Colonel General Z. Hasanov heard the reports by video conference with the command and control posts of the troops, as well as the headquarters of the Army Corps and formations stationed in the liberated territories.

The Minister evaluated the progress of the training and stressed the importance of improving the activities of signal units and subunits, the organization of unified communications, and automated control systems between the troops.

In accordance with the combat training plan for 2022 approved by the Minister of Defense of the Republic of Azerbaijan, Colonel General Zakir Hasanov, unmanned aerial vehicles (UAVs) carried out training flights, Report informs.

According to the Defense Ministry, theoretical and practical knowledge of servicemen, as well as their ability to operate unmanned aerial vehicles (UAVs) in simulators, were tested.

As part of the exercises, crews of unmanned aerial vehicles conducted ground reconnaissance at various altitudes, determined the coordinates of imaginary enemy ground targets and transmitted the received information to control points.

The main objectives of the exercises, held with consideration of combat experience gained in the Patriotic War, are to improve the practical skills of the crews.

Queen Elizabeth II of the United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern Ireland received a delegation led by President of the Equestrian Federation of the Republic of Azerbaijan (ARAF) Elchin Guliyev at Windsor Castle, Report informs.

According to ARAF, Her Majesty the Queen, who has always watched with great interest the performances of Azerbaijani representatives at the Royal Windsor Horse Show, which is traditionally organized in honor of members of the royal family, was presented with a gift from President Ilham Aliyev – the Karabakh horse named Şöhrət (“Glory”).

The horse presented to the Queen was brought to Windsor Castle and handed over to the new owner with a certificate containing all the information.

Later, the statues of Karabakh named Alkhan and Dilbaz named Shield created by the famous Azerbaijani sculptor Faig Hajiyev were presented to Her Majesty the Queen.

Her Majesty Elizabeth II thanked for the gift and traditional participation in the Royal Windsor Horse Show.

Azerbaijani President Ilham Aliyev’s plane landed at the newly built Rize-Artvin Airport in Rize, Turkiye, Report informs.

President Aliyev was welcomed by Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan and other officials.

The heads of state will attend the inauguration of Rize-Artvin Airport.

President of Azerbaijan Ilham Aliyev has arrived in Turkey on a working visit to attend the opening of the newly constructed Rize-Artvin Airport in Turkey’s Rize city, according to Azerbaijan Television.

A tree-planting campaign was held in Baku in honor of the 99th anniversary of the national leader Heydar Aliyev, Report informs.

The event, organized by the Heydar Aliyev Foundation with the support of the Zira Cultural Center and Eco-Park, the Ministry of Education, the Khazar District Executive Authority, and Azerenergy OJSC, was held at secondary school No. 120 named after. N. Yagubova.

The Azerbaijani Ministry of Defense presented a review of the events of last week.

Football club Trabzonspor won the seventh Turkish championship in their history last weekend. A title that delighted their fans, who celebrated widely in the streets.