Kremlin: work on Karabakh agreement began long before Mi-24 incident

Kremlin Spokesman Dmitry Peskov said that the Nagorno-Karabakh ceasefire agreement is not related to the incident with the downed Russian Mi-24 helicopter.

"The work on the agreement began long before the incident," Peskov said, answering a question whether the situation with the Russian helicopter had an impact on achieving the ceasefire agreement on Nagorno-Karabakh.

"A statement was signed between President of the Republic of Azerbaijan Ilham Aliyev, Prime Minister of the Republic of Armenia Nikol Pashinyan and Russian President Vladimir Putin, it was announced about a full ceasefire and ending all military actions in the zone of the Nagorno-Karabakh conflict," TASS cited the spokesman as saying.

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. The Russian leader said the Azerbaijani and Armenian sides would remain on the positions they hold and Russian peacekeepers would be deployed to the region. Besides, Armenia and Azerbaijan should carry out the exchange of prisoners of war and the bodies of those killed. Aghdam region will be returned to Azerbaijan before November 20, Kelbajar region - before November 15, Lachin region - before December 1.