Russian Emergencies Ministry’s first flight for Karabakh lands in Yerevan
The Ilyushin IL-76 landed at about 19.00 local time, carrying a 30-strong team and equipment
YEREVAN, November 15. /TASS/. An aircraft of the Russian Emergencies Ministry, which took off from Moscow’s Zhukovsky Airport with specialists and equipment onboard, landed in Yerevan on Sunday, TASS reported from the scene.
The Ilyushin IL-76 landed at about 19.00 local time (18.00 Moscow time), carrying a 30-strong team and equipment.
Earlier in the day, Russian Emergencies Minister Yevgeny Zinichev said that "an emergency team of specialists of the central corpus will assess the situation on the ground and will coordinate future steps on providing necessary assistance to the civilian population.
Russia’s National Defense Control Center said that the Russian Defense Ministry started forming an interagency humanitarian response center in Stepanakert. Starting on Friday, the Emergencies Ministry’s team, which will be incorporated into the urgent response center, will be relocated to boost its force. In the near future, it will be bolstered by forces of the Russian FSB Border Guard Service along with representatives of other federal executive bodies.
On November 13, Russian President Vladimir Putin signed a decree establishing the Interdepartmental Humanitarian Response Centre in Nagorno-Karabakh. The center brings together representatives of the Emergencies and Foreign Ministries, the Federal Security Service (FSB) and other executive federal bodies. The Defense Ministry was commissioned to solve organizational issues.
Renewed clashes between Azerbaijan and Armenia erupted on September 27, with intense battles raging in the disputed region of Nagorno-Karabakh. On November 9, Russian President Vladimir Putin, Azerbaijani President Ilham Aliyev and Armenian Prime Minister Nikol Pashinyan signed a joint statement on a complete ceasefire in Nagorno-Karabakh starting from November 10. The Russian leader said the Azerbaijani and Armenian sides would maintain the positions that they had held and Russian peacekeepers would be deployed to the region. Besides, Baku and Yerevan must exchange prisoners and the bodies of those killed.