Azerbaijan Breaches Armistice Agreement with Armenia in Russia

MOSCOW – Russia accuse Azerbaijan violate ceasefire which brokered Moscow, which ended the 2020 war with Armenia. Russia accuses Azerbaijan of allowing its troops to cross the demarcation line.

“On March 25, a unit of the Azerbaijan Armed Forces crossed the line of contact in Shusha district, in violation of the November 9, 2020 agreement,” the Russian Defense Ministry said in a statement.

It was also reported that the Russian peacekeepers took steps aimed at preventing escalation and mutual provocations.

Earlier on Saturday, Azerbaijan’s Defense Ministry said it had taken control of several additional roads in the breakaway Nagorno-Karabakh region of majority Armenia that has fought two wars with arch-enemy Armenia.

The ministry also stated that the necessary control measures were implemented by units of the Azerbaijan Army to prevent the use of the dirt road north of Lachin for the supply of weapons from Armenia.

The only road linking Karabakh to Armenia, the Lachin corridor, has been under an Azerbaijani blockade for months, which Yerevan says has caused a humanitarian crisis in the enclave.

There have been occasional exchanges of fire along the Armenian-Azerbaijan border and in Karabakh since a Russian-mediated ceasefire ended six weeks of fighting in the fall of 2020.

Last week, Armenian Prime Minister Nikol Pashinyan warned of a “very high risk of escalation” in Karabakh. Armenia also accuses Russian peacekeepers of failing to protect ethnic Armenians living in the restive region.

(esn)