Russia conducts military exercises in the southwest amid an outbreak between Azerbaijan and Armenia

MOSCOW (Reuters) – Russia is conducting military exercises to test its readiness for combat amid clashes between its ally Azerbaijan and Armenian forces, Russia’s Defense Minister told his Azeri counterpart on Saturday.

The Defense Ministry described the exercises as a routine check of the army’s ability to ensure security in the southwestern region of Russia, and denied any link between the training and the fighting taking place in the Caucasus region, southern Russia. .

More than a dozen Armenian and Azeri soldiers have died in recent days in clashes between the two former Soviet republics that have long been at odds with the breakup of Azerbaijan, mainly the ethnic Armenian region of Nagorno-Karabakh.

Russia, which has a military base in Armenia, urged the two sides to cease fire and show restraint. The Kremlin has said that Moscow is ready to act as a mediator.

Russian Defense Minister Sergei Shoigu and Sakir Hasanov of Azerbaijan discussed the clashes in a phone call on Saturday.

The exercises involve around 150,000 troops and 400 planes, according to the defense ministry.

The two sides accuse each other of bombing military targets and villages, and Azerbaijan warned Armenia that it could attack the Metzamor nuclear power station if its Mingechavir depot or other strategic points were hit.

Armenian Prime Minister Nikol Pashinyan said on Saturday that Azerbaijan posed a threat to his country and world security, saying that the threat to attack one of its nuclear power plants amounted to “a threat to commit terrorism”.

Russia considers Armenia a strategic partner in the South Caucasus region and supplies it with arms.

“I categorically deny any link between the activities carried out by the armed forces of the Russian Federation and the escalation on the Armenian-Azeri border,” Deputy Defense Minister Alexander Fomin said in a separate statement, quoted by Russian news agencies.