Russia confirms start of withdrawal of peacekeepers from Karabakh

The Kremlin has confirmed reports about the start of the withdrawal of Russian peacekeeping forces stationed in Nagorno-Karabakh.

“It is indeed so,” Dmitry Peskov, a spokesman for the Russian president, said when asked by Russian media on Wednesday to comment on the reports. He did not elaborate, RFE/RL’s Armenian service reports.

Russian peacekeepers were deployed in Nagorno-Karabakh in accordance with a trilateral agreement between Moscow, Baku and Yerevan that put an end to a six-week war between Azerbaijan and Armenia over the region in November 2020.

Under the terms of the ceasefire deal about 2,000 Russian peacekeepers were deployed in the region for a period of five years with the possibility of further extending their stay to protect the local Armenian population as well as a vital corridor connecting the region with Armenia.