Russian soldiers are leaving the Karabakh region of Azerbaijan. They had been there to keep the peace after a war in 2020. Officials from both countries announced this on Wednesday.
During a phone call with reporters, a spokesperson for the Russian government, Dmitry Peskov, said that they are pulling out their troops, but he didn’t share more information. Hikmet Hajiyev, who is in charge of foreign policy for Azerbaijan’s president, also said that both countries agreed to the withdrawal.
Hajiyev did not explain why the forces were being taken out, but it seemed like they weren’t needed anymore after Azerbaijan got full control of the area last year.
The area called Karabakh was controlled by Armenian people, but there was a war in 2020 and Azerbaijan got back some of the land.
The war ended with a deal made by Russia that called for 2,000 peacekeeping troops to be placed in the parts of Karabakh still held by Armenians. The forces had to make sure that the only road connecting Karabakh with Armenia was open for people to use.
Azerbaijan started to block the road at the end of 2022 because they believed Armenians were using it to transport weapons and smuggle minerals. The Russian forces did not get involved.
After many months of not having enough food and medicine in Karabakh because of the blockade, Azerbaijan quickly attacked in September 2023. This made the Karabakh Armenian leaders give up after just one day of talking, with help from Russian forces.
Almost all of the 50,000 Armenian people who live in Karabakh left the area in just a few days.
Date:
Russia starts removing its peacekeeping personnel from Karabakh
