It said around 200 protesters, gathered outside the base in the northern town of Gyumri, were demanding that Russian peacekeepers unblock the sole road – the Lachin Corridor – which links Armenia and the predominantly ethnic Armenian enclave of Nagorno-Karabakh.

Since Dec 12, people identifying themselves as environmental activists from Azerbaijan have partially blocked the road, letting only limited traffic through.

Azerbaijan says their action does not amount to a full blockade, but ethnic Armenian officials in Nagorno-Karabakh officials say food, medicine, and fuel are running desperately short as a result.

The corridor, which allows supplies from Armenia to reach the 120,000 ethnic Armenians who control the mountainous region, has been policed by Russian peacekeepers since 2020.

Nagorno-Karabakh is internationally recognised as part of Azerbaijan.

However, its inhabitants are predominantly ethnic Armenian and it broke away from Baku’s control in a war in the late 1980s and early 1990s, as the Soviet Union was disintegrating.

In 2020, Azerbaijan retook territory in and around the enclave after a second war that ended in a Russian-brokered ceasefire, and peacekeepers deployed along the Lachin corridor, which became the only route into and out of Nagorno-Karabakh.