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Over 1,300 refugees return to Nagorno-Karabakh in past day

The security of busses across the contact line was also ensured by Russian service members

MOSCOW, December 6. /TASS/. Russian peacekeepers escorted buses with 1,318 refugees returning to Nagorno-Karabakh from Armenia, the Russian Defense Ministry said on Saturday.

"Buses have taken 1,318 people from Yerevan to Stepanakert today. The buses were escorted on their route by patrols of the Russian peacekeeping contingent and military police," the Russian Defense Ministry said.

The security of busses across the contact line was also ensured by Russian service members.

A total of over 33,000 residents of Nagorno-Karabakh returned to their domiciles since the start of the peacekeeping operation.

Renewed clashes between Azerbaijan and Armenia erupted on September 27, with intense battles raging in the disputed region of Nagorno-Karabakh. The conflict between Armenia and Azerbaijan over the highland region of Nagorno-Karabakh, a disputed territory that had been part of Azerbaijan before the Soviet Union break-up, but primarily populated by ethnic Armenians, broke out in February 1988 after the Nagorno-Karabakh Autonomous Region announced its withdrawal from the Azerbaijan Soviet Socialist Republic. In 1992-1994, tensions boiled over and exploded into large-scale military action for control over the enclave and seven adjacent territories after Azerbaijan lost control of them.

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.

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