The Armenian Connection

Armenia’s Pashinyan attended Moscow’s 2025 parade under pressure, watching Azerbaijani troops lead the foreign columns. This year he skipped it entirely, hosting European summits in Yerevan instead. The contrast captures Russia’s shrinking influence. Inside Ukraine, life goes on creatively: from petanque championships in blossoming Uzhhorod to a Khmelnytsky farmer renting out laying hens as a community investment scheme. Make us preferred on Google Flip Share Facebook X (Twitter) LinkedIn Bluesky Email Copy Copied Left. The domestic hen or domestic hen (Gallus gallus domesticus) is a domestic bird. During the long history of human domestication, a large number of different breeds have been bred. (Photo Absurr / Wikimedia Commons) Right. Russian President Vladimir Putin talks to the media following his meetings with foreign delegations at the Kremlin in Moscow on May 9, 2026. (Photo by Ramil Sitdikov / POOL / AFP) Content Share Facebook X (Twitter) LinkedIn Bluesky Email Copy Copied Flip Make us preferred on Google Commentories on this year’s parade have often focused on the contrast with last year’s event, which was dedicated to the 80th anniversary of the Soviet Union’s victory over Nazi Germany and was held with great pomp and ceremony and attended by three dozen presidents and heads of government and an equal number of other foreign dignitaries. Nicolás Maduro was still the Venezuelan President, and he and his wife, Cilia Flores, flew into Moscow for the event. I would like to focus on an aspect of the 2025 parade that went unnoticed, but which, in the light of events this May, takes on new significance. Among the heads of state present last year was the Armenian Prime Minister Nikol Pashinyan. Follow our coverage of the war on the @Kyivpost_official . Relations between Russia and Armenia had already deteriorated by the beginning of May 2025, and the presence of the Armenian prime minister likely indicated that Armenia feared, if not a direct Russian military invasion of its territory, then certainly provocations or interference in its domestic politics – after all, Russia has a big military base located near the city of Gyumri, 126 kilometers (78 miles) from Yerevan. Last year, in addition to Russian troops – including those involved in the war in Ukraine – columns of troops from 13 other countries participated in the parade. The first foreign column to march across Red Square was from Azerbaijan, although the Azerbaijani President Ilkhan Aliyev had declined an invitation to the “Victory Day” event, and no other high-ranking Azerbaijani representatives attended either. Other Topics of Interest Why Russia Scaled Down the Victory Day Parade Putin talks peace while Russia keeps killing. Kyiv Post’s Bohdan Nahaylo breaks it down. I don’t know whether Putin’s plan in placing the Azerbaijani soldiers at the head of the parade of foreign forces was intended to provoke a belligerent reaction from Pashinyan, but, in any case, it did not work. By that time, Armenia and Azerbaijan were already discussing the terms of a peace agreement, through which they intended to end a tragic, more than 40-year-long military conflict. In August 2025, the peace agreement was signed at the White House, brokered by US President Donald Trump. It seems to me, however, that Pashinyan did not forget about the 2025 parade in Moscow, and this May, he stole the show by organizing two international summits in Yerevan: the European Political Community Summit and the first-ever EU-Armenia Summit. This year’s lackluster Moscow parade left Putin imitating Trump’s habit of heralding the approaching end of a conflict, with or without grounds for doing so, but nothing Putin says will encourage any section of Ukrainian society to relax. Ukrainian businesses, for example, are under intense pressure as energy prices rise and purchasing power falls. Despite these difficulties, however, some entrepreneurs are still willing to sponsor cultural and sporting events that are vital to the life of any community. Early May in Uzhhorod – just as the cherry trees started to blossom – was the scene for one such event, and it too had an Armenian connection. Sakura 2026, Transcarpathia’s International Petanque Championship took place, sponsored by Arsen Melkumyan, a regional politician and business owner. Melkumyan was born in Nagorno-Karabakh region, during the Armenian-Azerbaijani war. He grew up there under shelling until the age of 16, but has lived in Ukraine for 25 years now and speaks excellent Ukrainian. Transcarpathia, located on the border of Slovakia, Hungary, and Romania, is farthest from the front line and is holding up economically relatively well. It is a favorite destination for financially independent displaced persons, some of whom moved there along with their businesses, becoming investors in the region. In other areas of Ukraine, the situation is increasingly difficult, but hard times are forcing entrepreneurs to find unconventional, if not eccentric, ways to move forward. Mykola Melnyk, owner of the Melnyk Agro farm, in the village of Chornokozintsi, in Khmelnytsky region, has started offering local residents a new service: chicken rental. The client invests in a named laying hen, which remains on the poultry farm, while all the eggs it produces belong to the client, who can collect their egg-shaped dividends as often as they like. In an interview with the specialized website AGROPORTAL, Melnyk reported that people have already shown interest in his “Rent-a-Chicken” project. Melnyk’s main business centers around growing vegetables in greenhouses and open fields and canning them, but he is ready to grow the poultry business if his new project proves successful. And that could mean another sponsor for events that bring good cheer to Ukraine! The views expressed in this opinion article are the author’s and not necessarily those of Kyiv Post.