Russia said on Monday its forces helped end a deadly weekend clash between Azerbaijani soldiers and Nagorno-Karabakh police, urging all sides to show restraint.
Nagorno-Karabakh is located within Azerbaijan, but has been under the control of Armenian-backed ethnic Armenian forces since a separatist war ended in 1994. In 2020, Azerbaijani troops defeated Armenian forces in six weeks of fighting that ended in a Russian-brokered peace deal allowing Azerbaijan to take a significant part of Nagorno-Karabakh and reclaim nearby areas that had been in Armenians’ hands for nearly two decades.
Tensions rose again in December when Azerbaijani protesters claiming to be environmental activists blocked the main road between Armenia and Nagorno-Karabakh, leaving its 120,000 residents short of food and other basic necessities.
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Azerbaijani soldiers checked vehicles suspected of carrying weapons over the weekend, resulting in a fatal shooting.
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Last month, the United Nations’ highest court ordered Azerbaijan to allow free movement along the so-called Lachin corridor to resume, but the situation remained tense.
On Sunday, Azerbaijan’s Foreign Ministry said a shootout occurred when Azerbaijani soldiers went to check vehicles suspected of carrying weapons along an auxiliary dirt road linking Armenia with Nagorno-Karabakh. The Armenian Interior Ministry rejected the allegation and described the shooting as an “ambush”, saying three Nagorno-Karabakh police officers were killed.
Russia’s defense ministry said on Monday its troops patrolling the region as peacekeepers under the 2020 Moscow-brokered deal moved quickly to stop the confrontation. The ministry confirmed that three Nagorno-Karabakh policemen were killed and added that two Azerbaijani soldiers were also killed in the shooting.
Russia’s Foreign Ministry expressed concern over Sunday’s shooting and urged all sides to show restraint and take steps to de-escalate the situation.
