Sargis Khandanian, the chairman of the Armenian parliament’s committee on foreign relations, traveled to Kyiv earlier this week to attend a meeting of the leadership of the OSCE Parliamentary Assembly. He became the first member of the National Assembly to visit the country since its 2022 invasion by Russia.
The parliament’s press office reported on Friday that Khandanian also held a separate meeting with Ukrainian parliament speaker Ruslan Stefanchuk.
“On behalf of the National Assembly of Armenia, Sargis Khandanian expressed support for his colleagues in the Supreme Rada of Ukraine for their courageous activities in difficult conditions for the country and emphasized the importance of working together on interparliamentary platforms,” it said in a statement.
The two opposition groups represented in the Armenian parliament are unlikely to endorse that statement, having repeatedly criticized Pashinian’s policy on Russia as reckless. They may also criticize Khandanian for visiting, together with other members of the OSCE Parliamentary Assembly’s Bureau, the nearby town of Bucha and laying flowers at a memorial to local residents killed shortly after the Russian invasion.
Bucha has been a stop for international visitors to Ukraine because of atrocities committed against its civilian residents in February and March 2022. Moscow denies accusations of executions, rapes and torture by Russian troops that occupied the town for 33 days.
Armenia’s ambassador to Ukraine and a local government official from Yerevan visited Bucha and made pro-Ukrainian statements there last May. The Russian Foreign Ministry protested against the “overtly unfriendly step on the part of official Yerevan.”
Pashinian criticized Russia’s military campaign in Ukraine during a February 2024 visit to Germany, underscoring Yerevan’s deepening rift with Moscow. A key member of his political team, parliament speaker Alen Simonian, said afterwards that Armenia “firmly supports the territorial integrity of Ukraine.” Moscow condemned Simonian’s statement, demanding an explanation from the Armenian parliament.
Pashinian embarked on the apparent rapprochement with Ukraine in 2023 despite Kyiv’s strong support for Azerbaijan in the Nagorno-Karabakh conflict.
Hakob Badalian, an Armenian political analyst, pointed to that support when he questioned the wisdom of Khandanian’s trip to Ukraine. He downplayed the fact that Stefanchuk voiced, according to the Armenian parliament, “unconditional support” for Armenia’s territorial integrity.
“Does Ukraine think that Azerbaijan occupied Armenian territory?” Badalian told RFE/RL’s Armenian Service. “Ukraine has a very close relationship with Azerbaijan. Ukraine welcomed the results of the Azerbaijani aggression against Nagorno-Karabakh. So when Armenian delegations participate in such meetings, hail Ukraine’s courage and so on, this really causes bewilderment.”
“The question is not Ukraine,” he said. “The question is whether Armenia’s objective interests and goals are part of the picture and how productively they are served.”