Seven Armenian citizens in Abkhazia are unable to return home. These nationals told Armenian News-NEWS.am that they were not working there at the moment, and they simply had lost their livelihood.

"Three months ago, my friends and I came to the Republic of Abkhazia to work in construction," said one of them, Arshak Kochinyan. "At first it was good, then the construction became passive because of the coronavirus, the checkpoints were closed. Based on the situation, we applied to the Ministry of Foreign Affairs [of Armenia]. They replied that we should apply to the embassy in Sochi [Russia]. We applied, we told, no response; we waited. A month passed, the Ministry of Foreign Affairs responded, I quote: ‘Hello, we are working in that direction, we will inform you if there is a result.’ And the embassy responded, I quote: ‘Russia's borders are still closed to foreigners! You are in a country with which the Republic of Armenia does not have diplomatic relations (you have gone [to Abkhazia] by knowing that). The embassy is accredited only in Russia. In this case, in Abkhazia you can expect help only from the [local] Armenian community.’”

Kochinyan added that they are in a dire situation at the moment, and they simply do not know how to return to Armenia.