Comment by Foreign Ministry Spokeswoman Maria Zakharova on Russia’s humanitarian aid to Nagorno-Karabakh

Russia is acting consistently to help ease the complicated humanitarian situation is Nagorno-Karabakh. In keeping with the initiative advanced by Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov during a trilateral meeting with the foreign ministers of Azerbaijan and Armenia held on July 25, 2023 in Moscow, we worked together with all the concerned parties to coordinate a scheme of a parallel unblocking of the Lachin and Aghdam routes. In light of substantial differences and a high level of mutual mistrust, it was a difficult process.

As the first step, a batch of humanitarian aid was delivered to the region on September 12, 2023, through the national public organisation Russian Red Cross. The distressed residents of Nagorno-Karabakh received approximately 15 tonnes of food and hygiene products, as well as bedding. We hope that, considering the agreements reached previously, the Lachin Corridor will be unblocked together with the Aghdam route in the near future, and that humanitarian aid will be freely and regularly delivered to the region via these routes.

We hope that this will stabilise the humanitarian situation in Nagorno-Karabakh and restore normal life for people there. In turn, this will create conditions for launching dialogue between Baku and Stepanakert and resuming regular work to implement the entire range of the trilateral agreements on the normalisation of Armenian-Azerbaijani relations that were reached at the top level in 2020-2022.