YEREVAN, January 10. /TASS/. Russia could ask the UN Security Council to send international peacekeepers to Nagorno-Karabakh if Moscow can’t live up to its commitment to ensure security for Armenians in that region, Armenian Prime Minister Nikol Pashinyan said at a news conference on Tuesday.

"If it becomes clear that, due to objective or subjective reasons, Russia is unable to fulfill its commitments, it should ask the UN Security Council to either grant an international mandate to the Russian military contingent or send a new multinational peacekeeping mission to Nagorno-Karabakh," he said.

A group of Azerbaijanis claiming to be environmental activists on December 12, 2022, blockaded the Lachin Corridor, which is the only road linking Armenia and Nagorno-Karabakh, and where the Russian peacekeeping force is temporarily stationed. Baku said the environmentalists are there to protest but don’t seek to block any traffic, and asserted that civilian vehicles could move unimpeded in both directions.

Yerevan described it as a provocation by Baku, which aims to cause a humanitarian disaster in Nagorno-Karabakh. Pashinyan said the blockade had sparked a food shortage in that region. Armenia, on December 14, 2022, asked the European Court of Human Rights to order Azerbaijan to lift the blockade of the Lachin Corridor.