Russia does not observe any actions to deliberately delay the exchange of prisoners of war and bodies of those killed by the parties to the conflict in Nagorno-Karabakh, but there are objective difficulties to move forward in this process. This was announced on Tuesday by Russian Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov at a press conference following a meeting of the Council of Foreign Ministers of the Collective Security Treaty Organization (CSTO) member states in an online format.
"It is difficult to talk about some deliberate steps to delay the process [exchange of prisoners of war and bodies of the dead], we do not see them. But it's a fact that there are objective difficulties, which I hope will be resolved more quickly," Lavrov said.
No ideas about using the CSTO peacekeeping contingent in Nagorno Karabakh were voiced at the meeting of the organization's foreign ministers, Lavrov said, answering TASS' question.
"We told in detail what measures Russia is taking to implement the November 9 statement of the leaders of Azerbaijan, Armenia and Russia," he said. - Russian peacekeepers are deployed there with the consent of the President of Azerbaijan and Prime Minister of Armenia, no other ideas were expressed," he said.
The situation aggravated in Nagorno-Karabakh on September 27 and active battles started there. On November 9 Russian President Vladimir Putin, Azerbaijani President Ilham Aliyev and Armenian Prime Minister Nikol Pashinyan signed a joint statement on the complete cessation of military operations in Nagorno-Karabakh. According to the agreements, the Azerbaijani and Armenian sides stop at occupied positions and Russian peacekeepers are deployed in the region.
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Photo: Russian Foreign Ministry
Based on materials from TASS