The current stage of the Nagorno-Karabakh [(Artsakh)] conflict began after a rather long period of extremely emotional, aggressive, and confrontational statements were building up, Russian Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov stated this at Thursday’s press conference.

"We would have preferred for the conflict to be settled long ago—on the basis of the principles developed by the OSCE Minsk Group Co-Chairs, about which the President of Azerbaijan has repeatedly spoken recently and stressed his readiness to implement on the basis of those principles proposed by the Co-Chairs. If we had gone that way, the result linked to the liberation of five regions—then two [more]—would probably have been the same. But first, it would have been bloodless, and second, it would have been done as a final political settlement," Lavrov said.

According to him, the proposed peace proposals, the political and diplomatic steps, which at some point were shared by all parties without exception, were questioned in the recent short period, it was said that it would not provide reliable security if we go with the return of five and two regions, and emotional and rather harsh, aggressive statements began to accumulate on both sides. The atmosphere was heating up, there were incidents on the border between Armenia and Azerbaijan, they were managed to be silenced quite quickly, but the desire for a quick solution was suspended on the air.

To note, Russian President Vladimir Putin, Azerbaijani President Ilham Aliyev, and Armenian Prime Minister Nikol Pashinyan on Monday night signed a joint statement on a complete cessation of hostilities in and around Artsakh. According to the Russian leader, the Azerbaijani and Armenian armed forces will remain in their positions, and Russian peacekeepers will be deployed in the region. But this statement also stipulates the handover of part of Artsakh lands to Azerbaijan.