Today I had a regular meeting with a group of relatives of missing and captured servicemen, which was attended by the commander of the Russian contingent carrying out a peacekeeping mission in Artsakh, Rustam Muradov, and the director of the Artsakh Republic State Service for Emergency Situations [(AR SSES)], Karen Sargsyan; Artsakh (Nagorno-Karabakh) President Arayik Haroutyunyan wrote this on Facebook Monday.

“Presenting the intensity of the humanitarian work being carried out, I have noted that thanks to the close cooperation of the AR SSES, the Artsakh office of the International Committee of the Red Cross and the Russian peacekeepers, during this time more than 600 bodies have been retrieved from the conflict zone, and work continues every day. These days, all efforts are being made at the highest state level to find out the fate of all our missing compatriots in the shortest possible time," Haroutyunyan added.

On November 9, Armenian Prime Minister Nikol Pashinyan, Azerbaijani President Ilham Aliyev, and Russian President Vladimir Putin signed a joint statement on a complete cessation of hostilities— which Azerbaijan had launched on September 27—in and around Artsakh. Accordingly, Russian peacekeepers are deployed in the region to monitor the implementation of the ceasefire and the cessation of hostilities. But this statement also stipulates the handover of part of Artsakh lands to Azerbaijan.