The Azerbaijani army captured the village of Parukh on Thursday before advancing towards a strategic mountain to the west of it. Three Karabakh Armenian soldiers were killed in ensuing fighting for the sprawling Karaglukh mountain. Russian peacekeeping forces stationed in Karabakh helped to largely halt the fighting on Saturday evening.
In a weekend statement, Russia’s Defense Ministry accused Azerbaijani of violating a Russian-brokered ceasefire that stopped the 2020 Armenian-Azerbaijani war. It urged Azerbaijani forces to leave the peacekeepers’ “zone of responsibility.” Baku denied violating the ceasefire regime in the area bordering the Aghdam district regained by it following the six-week war.
The Defense Ministry in Moscow announced on Sunday evening that Azerbaijani forces have pulled out of Parukh.
Karabakh’s Defense Army confirmed the following morning that the small village is now “under the control of the Russian peacekeeping troops.” All of its residents fled their homes on Thursday.
The Defense Army also said that Azerbaijani soldiers continue to hold “fortified positions” at a section of Karaglukh but that “the main part” of the sprawling mountain is controlled by the Karabakh Armenian side. The Russian contingent’s command keeps trying to ensure a full Azerbaijani withdrawal from the area, it added in a statement.
The Armenian Foreign Ministry said, meanwhile, that Yerevan expects from the Russians “concrete measures” to reverse the Azerbaijani “incursion” into parts of Karabakh’s eastern Askeran district. It also reiterated Yerevan’s calls for a “proper investigation” into the peacekeepers’ failure to thwart that incursion in the first place.
The Russian military said on Sunday that the peacekeepers have managed to “stabilize the situation” in the area. Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov told reporters on Monday that Moscow’s chief objective now is to ensure the conflicting parties’ full compliance with the 2020 truce accord.
Neither side reported serious truce violations on Sunday and Monday morning.