Russia on Saturday accused Azerbaijan of violating the Moscow-brokered ceasefire that ended the 2020 war with Armenia, by letting its troops cross over the demarcation line.

Iran PressEurope: After the second Karabakh war in 2020, which ended with a ceasefire agreement mediated by Russia, three to six thousand Russian peacekeeping forces were deployed in the region and began their efforts to establish a ceasefire between the parties, but in the past 30 months, the ceasefire between the two sides has been violated many times.

"On March 25, a unit of the armed forces of Azerbaijan crossed a line of contact in the district of Shusha, in violation" of the agreement of November 9, 2020, the Russian defence ministry said in a statement.

It said Russian peacekeepers "are taking measures aimed at preventing escalation... and mutual provocations."

Earlier on Saturday, Azerbaijan's defence ministry said it has taken control of some auxiliary roads in its Armenian-majority breakaway region of Nagorno-Karabakh over which it has fought two wars with arch-foe Armenia.

The ministry said "necessary control measures were implemented by the units of the Azerbaijan Army in order to prevent the use of the dirt roads north of Lachin" for arms supplies from Armenia. 219