The Kremlin on Wednesday confirmed that Russian peacekeepers, stationed in Artsakh since the end of 2020, have begun the process of withdrawing.
The deployment of the peacekeepers was mandated by the November 9, 2020 agreement between the leaders of Armenia, Azerbaijan and Russia. They were to be deployed for a period of five years.
“Yes. It’s true,” Kremlin spokesperson Dmitry Peskov told reporters when asked about the withdrawal of the Russian peacekeepers, first reported by Azerbaijani media site.
Russia has started withdrawing peacekeepers from Nagorno Karabakh, Press Secretary of the Russian President, Dmitry Peskov has confirmed.
“Yes. Indeed it is true,” the Kremlin Spokesman said, when asked to comment on Azerbaijani media reports on withdrawal of peacekeepers.
Azerbaijani social media pages began posting videos of a Russian peacekeepers convoy traveling out of Artsakh toward Ganja to the south.
Baku said that the decision to withdraw the peacekeepers was made jointly between the leadership of Russia and Azerbaijan.
“The top leadership of both countries adopted a decision to withdraw Russian peacekeepers from the territory of Azerbaijan ahead of schedule,” said Hikmat Hajiyev, Assistant of the President of Azerbaijan, Head of Foreign Policy Affairs Department of the Presidential Administration, the APA news agency reported.
“According to the trilateral statement signed on November 10, 2020, the decision to withdraw Russian peacekeepers temporarily stationed on the territory of the Republic of Azerbaijan was adopted by the supreme leadership of both countries. The process has already started, the Defense Ministries of Azerbaijan and Russia are implementing the appropriate measures for the execution of that decision,” Hajiyev added.
