“The Russian peacekeepers are doing everything to protect the civilian population,” Putin told a visiting senior Chinese official. “We are in constant touch with the authorities in Yerevan, Stepanakert and Baku. We hope to achieve de-escalation and put things on a peaceful track.”
Putin did not explicitly comment on the Azerbaijani military offensive in Karabakh, launched on Tuesday, and Wednesday’s Russian-brokered ceasefire reflecting Baku’s demands. He said only that the Russian peacekeepers have evacuated scores of Karabakh Armenians affected by the fighting.
The Kremlin said that over 2,000 Karabakh Armenians took shelter at the headquarters of the Russian peacekeeping contingent. More than half of them are children, according to it.
Putin spoke with Armenian Prime Minister Nikol Pashinian later in the day. The Armenian government said they discussed “the situation in Nagorno-Karabakh” and Russian-Armenian relations that have further deteriorated in recent weeks. It gave no details.
According to the Kremlin’s readout of the call, Putin welcomed the ceasefire agreement and said the commanders of the Russian peacekeeping contingent will mediate talks between Azerbaijani and Karabakh officials slated for Thursday.
“Despite the difficult conditions, the peacekeepers continue to accurately carry out their assigned tasks and provide comprehensive assistance to the civilian population and refugees, including with the help of military doctors,” the statement cited Putin as saying.
Speaking to Armenian Public Television late on Tuesday, Armen Grigorian, the secretary of Armenia’s Security Council, charged that the Russian peacekeepers failed to protect Karabakh’s population contrary to their “obligations” spelled out by another truce accord that was brokered by Moscow during the 2020 war.
Grigorian denied suggestions that Yerevan further alienated Moscow earlier this month by holding a joint military exercise with the United States, providing humanitarian aid to Ukraine and moving to accept jurisdiction of an international court that issued an arrest warrant for Putin in February. He said that Moscow failed to honor its commitments even before these moves condemned by the Russian Foreign Ministry as “unfriendly.”
The Russian Foreign Ministry spokeswoman, Maria Zakharova, accused the Armenian government of “ingratitude” after several Russian peacekeepers were killed in Karabakh in unclear circumstances on Wednesday.
The Russian Defense Ministry did not initially specify the number of the victims or blame either side for their deaths. The soldiers died when they their armored vehicle came under fire in Karabakh’s northern Martakert district, the ministry said, adding that the incident is being investigated by Russian and Azerbaijani military officials.
In a Telegram post, Zakharova also rejected the Armenian criticism of the Russian peacekeepers and implied that the latest Azerbaijani offensive was made possible by Pashinian’s decision to recognize Azerbaijani sovereignty over Karabakh.
“That became Yerevan’s final solution to the Nagorno-Karabakh issue,” she charged amid widespread expectations of mass exodus of Karabakh’s ethnic Armenian population.
Dmitry Medvedev, a former Russian president who is now the deputy head of the country’s Security Council, hit out at Pashinian shortly after the Azerbaijani army launched the large-scale offensive in Karabakh. Some members of Pashinian’s entourage responded by accusing Moscow of trying to provoke a coup d’etat in Armenia.
Grigorian hit back Medvedev and said Moscow must “explain” the ex-president’s comments highlighting growing tensions between the two allied states. He also suggested that Russia may be “leaving the region” and Armenia in particular. Pashinian made similar claims early this month, prompting a stern rebuke from Moscow.