Russian Ally Forced to Give Up Disputed Enclave as Ceasefire Declared

Ethnic Armenians in control of Nagorno-Karabakh agreed to a Moscow-proposed ceasefire on Wednesday, one day after Azerbaijani forces launched an offensive in the breakaway region.

"The authorities of the Republic of Artsakh accept the proposal of the command of the Russian peacekeeping contingent to cease fire," Armenian-aligned authorities, who call themselves the Republic of Artsakh, said on Wednesday.

The agreement on the "complete cessation of hostilities," negotiated by Russian peacekeeping forces in Nagorno-Karabakh, came into effect at 1 p.m. local time in the enclave, Russia's Defense Ministry said.

On Tuesday, Azerbaijani forces said Baku was launching "anti-terrorist" operations against the Armenian-backed de-facto authorities in Nagorno-Karabakh. The area is internationally recognized as Azerbaijani territory but is under Armenian-aligned control. Armenia's Foreign Ministry said on Tuesday the "large-scale aggression" amounted to "ethnic cleansing."

Azerbaijan's Ministry of Defense said it would halt its "anti-terrorist activities" in the enclave if "Armenian armed forces stationed in the Karabakh region of Azerbaijan lay down their weapons and surrender."

"We state once again that the armed forces and military equipment of the Republic of Armenia are not deployed in Nagorno-Karabakh," Yerevan responded on Tuesday.

Armenia and Azerbaijan have gone to war twice over Nagorno-Karabakh in the three decades since the Soviet Union fell apart, most recently in 2020. Tensions rose in recent months after Azerbaijan moved to restrict access between Armenia and Nagorno-Karabakh through the route known as the Lachin Corridor in late 2022.

"Fighting continues with varying intensity along the entire line of contact," Artsakh authorities said earlier on Wednesday.

The Nagorno-Karabakh presidential office said its forces were outnumbered several times by Azerbaijan's forces, with both sides sustaining casualties, according to the Armenian news agency, Armenpress. The enclave's de-facto authorities said other nations' actions to stop the hostilities were "insufficient," and they were therefore accepting the ceasefire.

U.S. Secretary of State Antony Blinken said on Tuesday that Baku's "unacceptable military actions risk worsening the humanitarian situation in Nagorno-Karabakh."

"We call for immediate end to hostilities and for direct dialogue," he said in a statement posted to X, formerly Twitter.

Ahead of the ceasefire agreement, Russian Foreign Ministry spokesperson Maria Zakharova said Moscow's peacekeeping contingent in Nagorno-Karabakh was notified about Azerbaijan's offensive on the territory "a few minutes before the start of hostilities."

Armenian Prime Minister Nikol Pashinyan said following the agreement of the ceasefire that because Russian peacekeepers had proposed it, "this in itself means that they have completely and without any reservations assumed the obligation to ensure the security of the Armenians in Nagorno-Karabakh."

Nagorno-Karabakh officials said on Tuesday that Azerbaijan's operations endangered civilians. Baku said its forces only fired on "legitimate military targets," adding that reports of targets on civilian objects were "provocative disinformation."