We have a large Armenian diaspora in New Hampshire, and we often hear from them their concerns that the blockade by Azerbaijan has caused serious humanitarian suffering and must be lifted immediately. As one of the few members of Congress who has spent some time in Armenia, I can say that this is a problem that we have to help solve. Senator Jeanne Shaheen noted this during the hearing, at the US Senate Committee on Foreign Relations, on the assessment of the crisis in Artsakh (Nagorno-Karabakh).
Then she asked Yuri Kim, the Acting US Assistant Secretary of State for Europe and Eurasian Affairs, what role Russia is currently playing in Nagorno-Karabakh and in the ongoing talks.
Kim replied that Russia was a mediator in the establishment of a ceasefire between Armenia and Azerbaijan after the war in 2020, and assumed the role of peacekeeping and guarantor of the implementation of the provisions of the ceasefire statement, and the US had no involvement in this process. According to the US assessment, Kim said, both Armenia and Azerbaijan share the view that Russia has not done what it should have done. It is reasonable to demand that the Russians do their part to prevent future violence. It is Russia's function to ensure the reopening of the Lachin corridor as well; it is their duty as peacekeepers. The US, not being a party to that statement, is doing its best in that regard and will continue to do more because it believes it is absolutely urgent to deliver food to the people of Nagorno-Karabakh. The supply of food and medicine should not be disrupted due to political disputes, and the whole world should ask what Russia is doing to improve the situation in Nagorno-Karabakh.
The US official noted that the Russian peacekeepers in Nagorno-Karabakh receive food and supplies by helicopters, the only humanitarian truck that entered Nagorno-Karabakh belongs to the Russian Red Cross, but this is not enough, it is not what Russia has undertaken as an obligation to ensure the safety of the people of Nagorno-Karabakh, and it is not what the representatives off Nagorno-Karabakh and Azerbaijani president Aliyev had agreed on, but that the Lachin corridor and other roads should be opened immediately and simultaneously.
