Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov confirmed on April 17 that Russia had begun withdrawing peacekeeping forces from the Nagorno-Karabakh region in Azerbaijan, according to RT.
Members of the Russian peacekeeping force escort Armenians to a Russian base in Nagorno-Karabakh in September 2023.
Azerbaijani media previously reported that Russian troops had begun withdrawing under a 2020 ceasefire deal between Azerbaijan and Armenia brokered by Moscow. Photos and videos showed armored vehicles flying Russian flags leaving Azerbaijani territory.
AFP quoted Hikmet Hajiyev, foreign policy adviser to Azerbaijani President Ilham Aliyev, as saying that the decision was agreed at the highest levels of Baku and Moscow.
Russia deployed a 2,000-strong peacekeeping force in the region under a deal that helped end a six-week conflict in 2020.
In September 2023, Azerbaijan regained control of all of Nagorno-Karabakh after a lightning offensive. Nearly all of the 100,000 ethnic Armenians there were forced to flee to Armenia.
Armenian PM says Azerbaijan may attack if no compromise
Nagorno-Karabakh is internationally recognised as part of Azerbaijan but has a majority ethnic Armenian population. It has been under the control of pro-Armenian separatists for nearly three decades.
The conflict in Nagorno-Karabakh has strained the alliance between Russia and Armenia. Armenian Prime Minister Nikol Pashinyan recently said that Yerevan had suspended its participation in the Moscow-led Collective Security Treaty Organization (CSTO). He has repeatedly criticized Russia for not supporting Armenia in the face of the actions of Azerbaijan, which has warm relations with Moscow.
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