Official representatives of the Russian government are giving conflicting statements about whether Moscow was informed about Tuesday’s massive attack on Artsakh, which has killed two civilians, among them a child.
The Azerbaijani Defense Ministry on Tuesday said that it had informed the Russian peacekeeping command, as well as the Turkish monitoring station in Aghdam of its intent to retaliate against what it called “terrorist activities” being carried out by Artsakh military units.
Kremlin spokesperson Dmitry Peskov did not confirm this report when speaking to reporters on Tuesday.
“I can’t confirm that we had prior information,” Peskov said.
Meanwhile, Russia’s foreign ministry spokesperson Maria Zakharova told a press briefing that Moscow became aware of Baku’s intentions “minutes before” Azerbaijani forces launched the attack.
“Information is being received about an operation by the Azerbaijani armed forces, as announced by Baku on starting antiterrorist operations in the region and retaliatory operations by local Armenian armed units. The Russian side calls on the conflicting parties to stop bloodshed, immediately stop military operations, and return to the path of political-diplomatic settlement. All the steps for the peaceful settlement of the Karabakh issue are written in the set of tripartite statements by the leaders of Russia, Azerbaijan and Armenia, which were adopted in 2020-2022,” said Zakharova.
“The command of the Russian peacekeeping contingent in Nagorno-Karabakh is in constant contact with the representatives of the Nagorno-Karabakh Armenians and the Azerbaijani authorities in order to cease the fire and return to the implementation of the aforementioned high-level tripartite agreements, she emphasized,” added Zakharova.
She also emphasized the need to follow the roadmaps already in place to drive efforts for peace between Armenia and Azerbaijan.
Zakharova said it was too early to discuss a peace treaty between Yerevan and Baku, saying that the provisions of already existing documents must be fulfilled.