Members of the People’s Movement for the Unblocking of the Lachin Corridor marched to the Russian peacekeepers’ deployment site on Friday, August 4 and demanded that the commander of the Russian peacekeeping forces, Alexander Lentsov, answer what steps the peacekeepers would take to ensure their safety during a bus rally they were going to have.

Artur Osipyan, a member of the initiative, said that the peacekeepers offered them to “write a letter and we will answer on Monday."

Prior to this, the protesters announced that they would not leave and would block the access of peacekeepers to their place of deployment. But since there was a public reaction, they announced that they would stop the campaign and turn back.

In the coming days, members of the movement for the unblocking of the Lachin corridor are planning to organize a rally on buses to the Hakari bridge closed by Azerbaijanis.

Gagik Avanesyan, a member of the initiative, told the Armenian Service of RFE/RL that with this step they will try to show the world that Azerbaijani President Ilham Aliyev is lying about the Lachin corridor being open. At the same time, Avanesyan admits that the initiative is risky and fraught with danger, but they have no other choice.

Since December 12, 2022, the sole road connecting Nagorno Karabakh to Armenia - the Lachin Corridor - has been blocked by Azerbaijan. Baku tightened the blockade on June 15, 2023, banning emergency relief supplies that were carried out by Russian peacekeepers and the International Committee of the Red Cross through the sole road connecting Karabakh to Armenia and the outside world. The move aggravated the shortages of food, medicine and other essential items experienced by the region’s population.