France's President Emmanuel Macron accused Russia on Wednesday, October 12 of purposely provoking the recent clashes between Armenia and Azerbaijan as part of an effort to destabilise the Caucasus region and beyond, Reuters reports.

The worst fighting between the two ex-Soviet countries since 2020 broke out in late September, when Azerbaijan attacked and killed more than 200 Armenians.

Speaking to France 2 television on Wednesday Macron said Moscow had stoked tensions in recent months in favour of Azerbaijan.

"What's been happening on the border the last two years ... 5,000 Russian soldiers are allegedly there to guarantee the border, (but) the Russians have used this conflict which dated back several centuries and played Azerbaijan's game with Turkish complicity and came back to weaken Armenia which was once a country it was close to," Macron said.

"You see what's happening? It's an effort by Russia to destabilise. It wants to create disorder in the Caucasus to destabilise all of us."

France, along with the United States and Russia are co-chairs of the Organization for Security and Co-operation in Europe's (OSCE) Minsk Group that mediates over Nagorno-Karabakh.

Macron last week sat down with Azeri President Ilham Aliyev, Armenian Prime Minister Nikol Pashinyan and European Council President Charles Michel to flesh out an agreement that will see a civilian EU mission head to the countries' border to assess the situation.