YEREVAN, April 22. /TASS/. Cars with Russian peacekeepers from Nagorno-Karabakh are heading to temporary deployment centers in Goris and Sisian in Armenia’s Syunik Province, Secretary of the Armenian Security Council Armen Grigoryan said.

"The Armenian government provided Russian peacekeepers in Nagorno-Karabakh with places for temporary deployment in Goris and Sisian. The location was chosen in order to ensure smooth operation of the Lachin corridor. Since the Russian peacekeeping troops are leaving Nagorno-Karabakh, they cannot stay in Armenia. A motorcade of Russian peacekeepers from Nagorno-Karabakh has set off for the temporary deployment centers in Goris and Sisian to arrange their closure," he told the Armenpress agency.

Azerbaijani presidential aide Hikmet Hajiyev said on April 17 that an early withdrawal of Russian peacekeepers from Karabakh had begun based on a decision made jointly by the top leadership of the two countries. The defense ministries of Azerbaijan and Russia are taking the necessary measures to implement the decision, he noted.

On April 22, Russian presidential press secretary Dmitry Peskov said that Russian peacekeepers had left Nagorno-Karabakh since "there are no more operational functions left for them" in the region after geopolitical realities there changed.

A Russian peacekeeping contingent was deployed to Nagorno-Karabakh based on the statement that the leaders of Armenia, Azerbaijan and Russia had signed on November 9, 2020. The mission comprised 1,960 troops armed with light weapons, as well as 90 armored personnel carriers and 380 motor and special vehicles. The Russian peacekeeping mission was based on a five-year mandate, which could be automatically extended for another five years, provided none of the parties announced plans to terminate the provision six months before the mandate’s expiration.