Shoigu reproaches UN for non-helping in demining Karabakh

Russia called on the United Nations to take part in demining the territories involved in the Karabakh conflict, but received no response, Sergey Shoigu, the Russian Defence Minister, has stated.

"As soon as this all happened in November, we invited the UN Demining Centre to come. Everything is mined up and down there. People cannot return home. Has anyone come? No one yet," the TASS has quoted Mr Shoigu as saying today.

So far, only local and Russian sappers are working in Nagorno-Karabakh, he has noted. "Both the Russian Ministry for Emergencies (MfE) and the Ministry of Defence (MoD) are working there, local sappers are also working. But no one [else] has come," said the Minister.

According to the Russian MoD, during their peacemaking mission in Nagorno-Karabakh, military engineers demined about 2000 hectares of territory and 618 kilometres of roads. "More than 25,500 explosive objects have been neutralized," says the message posted on April 17 on the website of the Russian MoD.

This article was originally published on the Russian page of 24/7 Internet agency ‘Caucasian Knot’ on April 17, 2021 at 06:15 pm MSK. To access the full text of the article, click here.