Russia Urges Immediate Halt To Karabakh Bloodshed, Hostilities

INA-  sources


Russia called Wednesday for an immediate halt to the fighting and bloodshed in Azerbaijan's breakaway Armenian-majority Nagorno-Karabakh region.
Moscow, the traditional power broker in the dispute, said its peacekeeping mission in Nagorno-Karabakh was evacuating civilians and providing medical assistance.
Azerbaijan on Tuesday launched a military operation against the territory, warning it would "continue until the end" in the region, over which it has fought two wars with neighbouring Armenia.
"In connection with the sharp escalation of the armed confrontation in Nagorno-Karabakh, we urge the conflicting parties to immediately stop the bloodshed, stop hostilities and eliminate civilian casualties," Russia's foreign ministry said in a statement.

Ex-Soviet Caucasus rivals Armenia and Azerbaijan have been locked in a decades-long dispute over Karabakh, fighting two wars over the mountainous territory -- in the 1990s and in 2020.
During a six-week war in 2020, Azerbaijan won back control much of the territory it had previously lost.
The conflict ended with a Russian-brokered ceasefire and Moscow deployed some 2,000 peacekeepers to oversee the truce.

"The main thing now is to urgently return to the implementation of the set of trilateral agreements at the highest level," Russia's foreign ministry said.
They "spell out all the steps for a peaceful solution to the Karabakh problem, to stop the armed confrontation and to do everything possible to ensure the rights and security of the population of Nagorno-Karabakh".
Moscow added that since their deployment in the region, Russia's peacekeeping contingent had "conscientiously carried out the tasks of maintaining the ceasefire and ensuring contacts between the Azerbaijani and Armenian sides".
In an earlier statement, the peacekeepers said they had evacuated hundreds of civilians to safety, and had provided medical aid to several wounded civilians, including children.


source: BARRON'S