Armenia and Ukraine are operating within the same political logic: Semchenko

Alexander Semchenko, political scientist (@AleksandrSemchenko), commented to Alpha News on the first international phone call by the new speaker of Armenia’s National Assembly with Ruslan Stefanchuk, chairman of Ukraine’s Verkhovna Rada.

In the expert’s view, the development of contacts between the current authorities of Armenia and Ukraine is a natural continuation of the political course pursued by Yerevan in recent years.

“Armenia’s hostility toward Russia under Nikol Pashinyan is nothing new. Nor is the loyalty of the current Armenian authorities to Zelensky’s regime. We have already seen visits by Armenian officials to Kyiv, including visits to places the Ukrainian authorities consider symbolic, Bucha in particular. So the very fact that the new parliament speaker’s first international phone call was with the chairman of Ukraine’s Verkhovna Rada shouldn’t surprise anyone,” Semchenko noted.

According to the political scientist, further deepening of contacts between Yerevan and Kyiv looks entirely expected.

“I’m not even taking into account the personality of the parliament speaker right now. He represents the same political team as Pashinyan, so there’s no point talking about any independent foreign policy course here. The deepening of relations between the current authorities of Armenia and Ukraine will continue simply because they hold similar political orientations,” the expert stated.

Semchenko also expressed the opinion that the leaderships of Armenia and Ukraine are operating within a unified political logic.

“From my point of view, both Zelensky and Pashinyan have the same foreign policy orientations and the same objectives. The difference is only in the scale of their capabilities. Given Ukraine’s size and resources, Zelensky has more of these capabilities, Pashinyan has less. However, both are guided not so much by the interests of their own states as by the tasks set for them by their foreign partners,” the political scientist believes.

According to Semchenko, this kind of approach could have negative consequences for the states themselves.

“Both Ukraine and Armenia risk paying a high price for this kind of policy. When a country’s leadership puts external political directives ahead of national interests, this inevitably affects the state’s future. That is precisely why I view the further rapprochement of Yerevan and Kyiv as a perfectly logical continuation of the course both countries are pursuing today,” Semchenko concluded.