Baku denies Russian claims of Azeri withdrawal from Karabakh village

BAKU, Azerbaijan: Azerbaijan denied Sunday Russia’s claims it had pulled back troops from a strategic village in its breakaway Nagorno-Karabakh region and that its forces had violated a ceasefire that ended a 2020 war with Armenia.

Earlier on Sunday, Russia’s defence ministry said: “The Azerbaijani side carried out the withdrawal of its units from near the settlement of Farukh.”

It added that Azerbaijan’s troops had twice violated a ceasefire in Karabakh’s Askeran region, where four people had been wounded as a result of a shootout.

“In cooperation with representatives of the parties to the conflict, the command of the Russian peacekeeping contingent has stabilised the situation,” the statement added.

But the defence ministry in Baku said it “declares with regret” that Russia’s statement on Azerbaijani withdrawal “does not correspond to reality.

“There were no changes in the positions of the Azerbaijani army in the village of Farukh and the surrounding heights, which are part of Azerbaijan’s sovereign territory,” the ministry said.

It added that “the information on alleged the ceasefire violation by Azerbaijan also doesn’t reflect reality and no Azerbaijani troops have been wounded”.

There were no immediate comments from Yerevan and the Armenian separatist authorities.

On Saturday, Moscow accused Azerbaijan of violating a ceasefire agreement by entering the Russian peacekeeping mission’s zone in Karabakh.

In 2020, Armenia and Azerbaijan fought a war over the long-contested enclave which claimed more than 6,500 lives.

A ceasefire deal brokered by Russian President Vladimir Putin saw Yerevan cede swathes of territory, with Russia deploying a peacekeeping contingent to the mountainous region.

The village of Farukh — also known as Parukh — is under the control of Russia’s peacekeepers.

A new flare-up in tensions came a month after Putin sent troops to pro-Western Ukraine, with signs indicating that both sides were digging in for a protracted conflict.