Azerbaijan accused Russia and Armenia of violating a ceasefire agreement in the Nagorno-Karabakh enclave, while Moscow proposed new peace talks and the European Union called on Baku and Yerevan to refrain from “violence and harsh rhetoric”, Al Jazeera reported. .

Azerbaijan’s government criticized Russia on Saturday as Azerbaijani President Ilham Aliyev and Armenian Prime Minister Nikol Pashinyan met in Brussels for talks aimed at resolving the decade-long conflict over control of Nagorno-Karabakh.

Since the collapse of the Soviet Union, the neighbors have fought twice over this small mountain enclave, which is part of Azerbaijan but is home to about 120,000 ethnic Armenians.

After heavy fighting and a Russian-brokered ceasefire in 2020, Azerbaijan captured ethnic Armenian-controlled territory in and around the mountainous enclave.

Since then, Baku and Yerevan have been negotiating a peace deal in which Russia also insists on maintaining a leading role and in which the two countries agree on borders, resolve enclave disputes and unblock relations.

However, tensions flared again when Azerbaijan blocked and closed the only land link between Karabakh and Armenia earlier this week.