August 19, 2022 - 13:35 AMT
Karabakh's Aghavno left with no electricity or means of communication

The lights of the houses in the Nagorno-Karabakh village of Aghavno are going out one by one ahead of an expected final evacuation on August 25.

The village has been deprived of electricity and all means of communication since Auguat 18, the Armenian service of RFE/RL reports.

Most of the women and children of the settlement have moved to the town of Goris in Armenia's Syunik province.

Amid fresh fighting around Nagorno-Karabakh earlier this month, the authorities in Stepanakert said that the Azerbaijani side, through Russian peacekeepers, demanded that a new connection be organized between Nagorno-Karabakh and Armenia along a new route.

The Lachin corridor currently used as connection between Armenia and Karabakh was supposed to serve its purpose at least until the fall of 2023, but Azerbaijan built a new road and demanded that the corridor be moved now.

At least three residents of Aghavno have burned down their houses before evacuation.

Nagorno-Karabakh’s authorities informed the few remaining Armenian residents of the town of Berdzor and the villages of Aghavno and Sus that are situated along the current Lachin corridor that no Russian peacekeepers will be left in the territory after August 25 and, therefore, they needed to leave their homes before the end of the month. However, a top Russian diplomat has said that thr peacekeepers were not going to move an inch.