YEREVAN, September 11. /TASS/. Russian President Vladimir Putin is well-informed about the situation on the Armenian-Azerbaijani border, Armenian Prime Minister Nikol Pashinyan said on Monday.

"I am sure that Vladimir Putin is well-informed about the situation. The goal and essence of all phone calls [with other leaders] was to convey this information to my colleagues who were unaware of these or those nuances," he said in an interview with the Public television channel.

"The situation with the illegal blocking of the Lachin corridor and the verified humanitarian crisis in Nagorno-Karabakh began in December 2022 and since then I have had dozens of phone calls with the Russian president," he said, adding that he may speak with Putin again if necessary.

He also said that his Monday’s phone call with Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan was useful. "I can only say that the conversation was meaningful and important. We share positions that communication should always be maintained on these or those nuances," he stressed.

Armenian Prime Minister Nikol Pashinyan said on September 7 that Azerbaijan had deployed troops to the border with Armenia and the division line with Nagorno-Karabakh. Baku refuted his statement, but on the following day, it said that Armenia was deploying troops to the border with Azerbaijan. According to the Azerbaijani Foreign Ministry, Armenia was "openly digging new trenches, building defensive installations." Amid the aggravating situation around Nagorno-Karabakh, Yerevan announced joint drills with the United States.

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’s 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. Renewed clashes between Azerbaijan and Armenia erupted in September 2020, with intense battles raging in the disputed region of Nagorno-Karabakh. On November 9, 2020, 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. Russian peacekeepers were deployed to the region to ensure the operation of humanitarian corridors. Later, the three leaders adopted several more joint statements on the situation in the region.

At a Council of Europe summit on May 17, 2023, Pashinyan said that Yerevan recognizes Azerbaijan’s sovereignty within the borders incorporating Nagorno-Karabakh.