Baku: On Sunday, Azerbaijan accused Russia of failing to uphold its end of a 2020 cease-fire deal that Moscow mediated to put an end to hostilities between Armenia and Azerbaijan over control of the Nagorno-Karabakh region.

The Russian government "did nothing to prevent" Armenian military supplies from reaching separatist forces in the troubled enclave, according to the foreign ministry of Baku. "The Russian side did not ensure full implementation of the agreement within the framework of its obligations," the ministry added.

A cease-fire sponsored by Russia in the autumn of 2020 put an end to six weeks of fighting over the mountainous breakaway region.

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As part of the agreement, large areas of Armenian territory were ceded, and Russia sent peacekeepers to the five-kilometer-wide Lachin Corridor, the only land route connecting the enclave to Armenia.

The corridor was recently closed by Baku, setting off protests and fears of a humanitarian crisis.
Russia's foreign ministry pleaded with Azerbaijan to reopen the tunnel on Saturday.

The declaration added that Armenia's recent recognition of Karabakh as a part of Azerbaijan "has radically changed the standing of the Russian peacekeeping contingent."

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"Under such conditions, the responsibility for the destiny of Karabakh's Armenian population should not be shifted onto third countries," it stated, possibly alluding to the Armenian separatists' demands that Moscow ensure the reopening of the land link.

Ilham Aliyev, the president of Azerbaijan, and Nikol Pashinyan, the prime minister of Armenia, met on Saturday in Brussels for negotiations to end their long-running conflict over control of Karabakh. The negotiations were facilitated by the EU.

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With the assistance of the European Union and the United States, whose escalating diplomatic activity in the Caucasus has irked Russia, Baku and Yerevan have been attempting to negotiate a peace agreement.

Moscow on Saturday offered to host the foreign ministers of the two nations and suggested that their future peace treaty could be signed there in an effort to reassert its power-broking position.