The city had a mixed Armenian-Azerbaijani population until the Shusha massacre in 1920, when Azerbaijani forces destroyed the Armenian half of the city and killed or expulsed its Armenian population— from 500 to 20,000 people.[52] Since the massacre left the city predominantly Azerbaijani, it was thereafter incorporated into the Azerbaijani SSR, along with the rest of the Nagorno-Karabakh Autonomous Oblast.[53] The city was captured in 1992 by Armenian Armed Forces to lift the Siege of Stepanakert during the First Nagorno-Karabakh War, and its then predominantly Azerbaijani population was expelled from it.[54] The city subsequently served as a defensive backbone within Artsakh, connecting the de facto capital, Stepanakert, to the town of Goris in Armenia via the Lachin corridor.[55]
Advancing from the city of
Chanakchi,[60] followed by part of the strategic Shusha–Lachin road on 4 November, with the Armenian forces subsequently closing the road to civilians.[61]Le Monde reported that the battle had turned in favour of Azerbaijan on 6 November, despite Artsakh's denial.[62]
Supported by artillery fire,
Azerbaijani Ministry of Defence released a video from the city, confirming full Azerbaijani control.[66] On the same day, the Artsakh's Presidential Office confirmed that it had lost control of Shusha,[67][68] although this was later contradicted by statements from the Armenian prime minister Nikol Pashinyan,[69] and the Armenian Ministry of Defence.[70] Following the signing of a ceasefire agreement, President of Artsakh, Arayik Harutyunyan reiterated that Artsakh had lost control of the city on 7 November,[71] and Pashinyan admitted to the loss of the city.[72] Due to the strategic advantage the city provided,[73] the capture of Shusha became a decisive moment in the war,[66][57] with Azerbaijan declaring victory a few days later.[74][75][76]
Azerbaijan's victory in Shusha was widely celebrated in Azerbaijani society and its diaspora.
8 November".[81] A military award was created for those who took part in the battle.[82]
The name of Nobel Avenue in Baku has been changed to "8 November" Avenue.[83]
Shusha was the second-largest city in the Nagorno-Karabakh region prior to the 2020 war. It is de jure part of the Shusha District of Azerbaijan, although it had been controlled by the unrecognised Republic of Artsakh since the end of the First Nagorno-Karabakh War in 1994, as part of its Shushi Province. The city is located at an altitude of 1,300–1,600 meters (4300' to 5200') above sea level,[84] about 15 kilometres (9.3 mi) from the regional capital Stepanakert, referred to by the Azerbaijanis as Khankendi.[85] The two settlements are separated by a valley,[86] and Shusha, which serves as a buffer zone for Stepanakert,[36] and is situated in mountainous terrain overlooking the region, has been described as a "strategic height from where one could keep all Nagorno-Karabakh under control".[87][88][89] The strategic hilltop town[90] is popularly referred to as an "unassailable" mountain fortress by both the Armenians and the Azerbaijanis.[91] A key road connecting Goris in Syunik Province, southern Armenia, to Stepanakert passes through the Lachin corridor via Shusha;[92] the only other major road connecting Armenia to Nagorno-Karabakh passes through the Murovdağ mountains in the northern Kalbajar District.[93]
Directly prior to the Armenian-Azerbaijani War of 1918–1920, Armenians formed a slight majority in the town. However, the town was left with a predominantly Azerbaijani majority after the war, as the Armenian population was massacred and the Armenian half of the city was razed during Shusha massacre. Subsequently, in 1923, under the Soviet rule, the Nagorno-Karabakh Autonomous Oblast (NKAO) was created, and Shusha was the only large settlement with an Azerbaijani majority to be incorporated into the oblast.[94]
In February 1988, the government of the Armenian-majority NKAO voted in favour of seceding from Azerbaijan and unifying with Armenia,[95] leading to a wider ethnic and territorial conflict between the Armenians and the Azerbaijanis living in the Soviet Union. After the Soviet Union collapsed in 1991, the Armenians and the Azerbaijanis vied to take control of Nagorno Karabakh and the fighting had escalated into full-scale warfare by early 1992. By then, the enclave had declared its independence and set up an unrecognised government.[96] Beginning in late 1991, Shusha became used by Azerbaijani forces as a base for daily indiscriminate rocket attacks onto the regional capital of Stepanakert during the Siege of Stepanakert, causing at least 169 civilian deaths. On 8 May 1992, the Armenian forces launched successful offensive to capture Shusha in order to break the siege, and its Azerbaijani population of about 15,000 people,[97] which made up 85.5% of the city's population in 1979,[98][99][100] was forced to flee.[54] Most of the city came into ruins,[101] and Shusha turned into a ghost town.[97] The ethnic Armenians, most of whom were the ones who fled anti-Armenian pogroms in Baku[102][103] and other cities of Azerbaijan,[104] then settled in the city, with about five thousand people living in Shusha prior to the battle in 2020.[105] In 2020, the de facto President of Artsakh, Arayik Harutyunyan announced plans to move the National Assembly of Artsakh to Shusha, which escalated the tensions between Armenia and Azerbaijan.[106]
The city has historical, political and cultural importance for both the Armenians and the Azerbaijanis.
Transcaucasus and the center of a self-governing Armenian principality, the Melikdoms of Karabakh, from medieval times through the 1750s.[51] It also has religious significance to the Armenians,[114] as the Ghazanchetsots Cathedral is located in the city, and was the seat of the Diocese of Artsakh of the Armenian Apostolic Church until the end of the war.[115]
For Azerbaijanis, the city holds particular cultural significance,[49][50][116] who consider the city to their cultural capital in the region,[117] and regard it as more important than Stepanakert.[118] Through history, the city was a home to many Azerbaijani intellectuals, poets, writers and especially, musicians (e.g., the ashiks, mugham singers, kobuz players).[119][120] Thus, Shusha is often considered the cradle of Azerbaijan's music and poetry and one of the leading centres of the Azerbaijani culture.[121][122]
The President of Azerbaijan, Ilham Aliyev, had frequently described retaking the city as one of the war's key objectives. In a 16 October interview with the Turkish television, Aliyev said that "without Shusha, our cause will be unfinished",[123] while the self-declared Armenian President of Artsakh, Arayik Harutyunyan, called Shusha "one of our greatest legacies we have inherited from our ancestors",[124] and added that "who controls Shushi, controls Artsakh".[125] Despite the symbolic importance of the town, the International Crisis Group's Azerbaijani analyst Zaur Shiriyev stated that it remained unclear whether the capture of Shusha was a military or political target,[123] while according to the Azerbaijani political analyst Fuad Shahbazov, the victory of Azerbaijani forces in Shusha would be "perceived as a moral victory for Azerbaijanis, whether they are on the front or not", which will also lead to "serious demoralization" among Armenian soldiers,[36] and according to International Crisis Group's senior analyst Olesya Vartanyan, the side that controlled Shusha had "automatically gained control over Stepanakert".[49]
On 27 September 2020, an Azerbaijani offensive marked the beginning of clashes in the disputed Nagorno-Karabakh region, which is de facto controlled by the self-proclaimed and unrecognized Republic of Artsakh, but de jure part of Azerbaijan.[126][127] The Azerbaijani forces first advanced in Fuzuli and Jabrayil districts, taking their respective administrative centres.[56] From there, they proceeded towards Hadrut.[128] The Armenian forces planned to hold out long enough until winter brought the Azerbaijani offensive, and especially its aerial operations to a standstill, buying time for international pressure to propel the Azerbaijani leadership to abandon its offensive.[129] But after the fall of Hadrut around 15 October, the Azerbaijani troops began to advance more intensively, and the Armenians started to retreat, with the Azerbaijanis then taking control of Zangilan.[57] Launching an offensive for Lachin,[130] the Azerbaijani forces also pivoted their war effort towards Shusha,[131] penetrating into Shusha District through its forests and mountain passes.[58][59]
Shusha had been under sporadic artillery fire since the beginning of the war.
Abkhazian Network News Agency correspondent reported that large explosions were heard near the city.[145] The next day, Artsakh authorities stated that Shusha had again come under bombardment.[146] On 2 November, the Armenian authorities stated that fierce clashes were taking place near Shusha.[147]
Before the battle, in late October and early November, both Armenia and Azerbaijan accused each other of using white phosphorus near Shusha.[148] On 30 October, Artsakh authorities had accused the Azerbaijani military of using phosphorus to burn forests near Shusha;[149] Azerbaijan issued a denial.[150] On 20 November, Prosecutor General's Office of Azerbaijan filed a lawsuit, accusing the Armenian Armed Forces of using chemical munitions to "inflict large-scale and long-term harm to the environment" around Shusha,[151] while Azerbaijani authorities had also stated that the Armenian forces were transporting white phosphorus into the region.[152] The use of white phosphorus is strictly regulated under an international agreement that neither Armenia nor Azerbaijan had signed.[153]
Battle
According to the Azerbaijani accounts, the
Qirmizi Bazar, which was heavily defended by the Armenian forces.[156] This was reiterated by the Azerbaijani presidentIlham Aliyev later on, who stated that the Azerbaijani forces had crossed the ravines, forests and mountains to reach the city.[157] On 4 November, the Armenian authorities reported that clashes continued near Shusha.[158] This saw Azerbaijan capture the mountains south of Shusha, as well as make progress into the Lachin corridor.[159]
Subsequently, the Armenian forces closed the Shusha–Lachin road to civilians,[61] trapping 80 journalists within the enclave, according to Reporters Without Borders.[160] The Armenian authorities stated that Shusha was heavily shelled on the morning of 5 November,[161] and that clashes continued the following day.[162] The Russian media reported that the Azerbaijani forces had managed to surround the city from three sides–the south, west, and east.[163] On 6 November, Le Monde reported that the battle had turned in favour of Azerbaijan, despite a denial by Artsakh.[62] In the early morning, Argishti Kyaramyan, who had served as the head of the Armenian National Security Service (NSS) until October 2020,[164] stating that his duties in the region were completely fulfilled, left Shusha.[14] In the meanwhile, the Armenian military commander Seyran Ohanyan, who was leading a group of 16 men in the city,[12] also left Shusha.[165]
The next day, thousands of Armenians fled Shusha and neighbouring Stepanakert,[45][55] with long lines of vehicles jamming the road.[46] The Armenian artillery batteries were repositioned outside the city and local servicemen set up last-minute checkpoints to ensure no male resident under 58 was leaving.[168] On 7 November, the Armenian authorities stated that fierce combat took place overnight near Shusha and Dashalty, and also claimed that several Azerbaijani attacks had been thwarted; Azerbaijan denied this,[169] and its president, Ilham Aliyev, announced that the Azerbaijani forces had seized control of Garabulag and Baharly in Khojaly District, located to the southeast of the city.[170]
The Azerbaijani forces entered the city on 6 November.
Abkhazian Network News Agency correspondent at scene reported that the Armenian forces in the city were supported with armoured vehicles, and that the technical superiority of the Azerbaijani forces was "gradually fading away" as the Azerbaijani forces were unable to use combat drones due to the foggy weather.[173] The Azerbaijani accounts state that the Azerbaijani special forces, consisting of 400 men divided into four groups of 100, climbing the "steep rocks of Shusha with ropes" and lightly equipped, broke into the city in the morning from four sides and urban warfare immediately began.[22][174] Azerbaijani forces used grenades and anti-tank missiles, as well as artillery support from outside the city, to combat the armoured vehicles of the over 2,000 Armenian defenders.[159]
The next day, the Armenian forces were driven out of the city centre in the afternoon, and, according to the commander of the Nakhchivan branch of the Azerbaijani special forces,[7]Tehran Mansimov, who took part in the battle,[175] the Azerbaijani forces formed a defence line in the Shusha fortress. They thwarted three Armenian counterattacks, while the major Gunduz Safarli and his squad seized the building of the Shusha City Executive Power[64][176] and continued building-by-building combat. Fighting along frontlines surrounding the city continued throughout the night.[159] On the morning of 8 November, the Azerbaijani forces continued their offensive outside the city.[22][155][174]
Aliyev, during his visit to
Azerbaijan National Agency for Mine Action (ANAMA) stated that Armenia had used Iskander missiles during the battle, adding that they found the remains of two exploded Iskander missiles during the demining of the area in Shusha.[182]
In the afternoon of 8 November, Aliyev announced that the Azerbaijani forces had taken control of the city,
Shushakend, and Dashalty.[188][189] The Azerbaijani media further reported that Mansimov had continued military operations and attacked the Armenian positions in Stepanakert,[190] disobeying the orders of the higher command,[191] though the Azerbaijani authorities and Mansimov himself denied this.[192][193] Subsequently, the Artsakh authorities acknowledged that they had lost control of Shusha,[67][68] adding that the Azerbaijani forces were closing in on Stepanakert.[194] However, the Armenian prime ministerNikol Pashinyan appeared to contradict this, stating that the battle was continuing;[69] this claim was later reiterated by the Armenian Ministry of Defence,[70] and the Armenian MP Nikolai Baghdasaryan, who called Armenian public to not panic.[69] Some Armenians speculated that the social network accounts of Artsakh officials were hacked and their statements did not correspond with the reality. Several Armenian officials and analysts also accused the Azerbaijani leadership of "lying to their people."[41] However, on 10 November, following the signing of the ceasefire agreement, which confirmed the fact that the Azerbaijanis were controlling Shusha,[195] Artsakh's self-proclaimed president, Harutyunyan, stated that his forces had lost control of the city on 7 November,[71] and Pashinyan admitted the loss of the city.[72]
Casualties
In mid-November, the International Committee of the Red Cross (ICRC), assisted by the Russian peacekeeping forces, started to find and exchange the bodies of the fallen soldiers from both sides,[196] and on 25 November, the Russian sources reported that, in the city, the ICRC had found more than 2,000 corpses in total.[32]
Armenian
Armenia had not commented on its military casualties from the battle before the trilateral agreement. On 6 November, Le Monde reported that the hospitals in Stepanakert did not have enough space to accommodate any more injured during the battle for Shusha.[62] Also, Reuters reported that the corpses of the Armenian soldiers were lining the stretches of a road in Shusha.[197] On 7 November, allegations emerged that the Armenian military commander, Seyran Ohanyan, who was in Shusha during the battle, and his son, Arthur Ohanyan, were severely wounded,[198][199] but this was denied by Armenia.[200] The Azerbaijani media, citing military sources, claimed that more than 800 corpses of the Armenian soldiers have not been released into Armenian possessions. The Armenian Ministry of Defence had asked Azerbaijanis to transfer these corpses to the Armenian side.[30] In an interview on 29 January 2021, the Azerbaijani commander Tehran Mansimov noted that the bodies of about 730 dead Armenian servicemen from Shusha, its environs and nearby forests were handed over to the Armenian side after the ceasefire agreement.[31] However, on 16 November, self-declared President of Artsakh, Arayik Harutyunyan, stated that 150 bodies belonging to the Armenian forces were recovered from the outskirts of Shusha and hundreds were still missing,[28] while the Armenian prime minister Nikol Pashinyan stated that over 300 bodies belonging to the Armenian forces were recovered from 14 to 16 November.[27] On 21 November, Artsakh authorities stated that they had found a wounded Armenian police officer near the city.[29]
Azerbaijani
Azerbaijan did not disclose its military casualties during the war.[201] On 3 December, Azerbaijan's ministry of defence disclosed the total number of Azerbaijani servicemen killed throughout the war, and stated that it will provide the details later on.[202] On 14 November, the Russian peacekeeping forces handed over the bodies of six Azerbaijani soldiers who were killed near Shusha to the Azerbaijani authorities.[203] However, the Armenian authorities claimed that at least 200 Azerbaijani soldiers were killed in the vicinity of Shusha before the battle.[26] The wounded Azerbaijani servicemen were taken to the nearby forests around the city,[31] and were evacuated on November 9.[155]
The battle was a key point in the 2020 Nagorno-Karabakh war and was seen as a significant blow by both the Armenian military and the wider Armenian society.
violent protests erupting throughout the country,[210] and a common claim of him "selling out" Shusha became popular among his opponents.[211] Ex-president of Armenia, Robert Kocharyan, also criticised the Armenian military leadership for not stopping the Azerbaijani forces from reaching the vicinity of Shusha, as, according to Kocharyan, the Armenian forces had about two weeks to form up a new defensive line. Kocharyan also claimed that Vitaly Balasanyan, then the secretary of the National Security Council of the Republic of Artsakh, offered to command the Armenian forces in Shusha, but was rejected.[212]
A series of military authorities backed Pashinyan, contending that Armenia's military position was much direr than many people believed.[211] Pashinyan, in response, stated that after the Azerbaijani forces took control of Shusha, Stepanakert was left defenseless, and that twenty to thirty thousand Armenian soldiers in Askeran and Martuni would've been under siege,[2][3] adding that the lives of the Armenian soldiers were more important for him.[213] Artsakh's self-declared president, Arayik Harutyunyan, also pushed back against allegations of treason, stating that the ethnic Armenian forces lacked the manpower to defend the city.[23] Then, the Russian presidentVladimir Putin stated that when the Azerbaijani forces captured Shusha, a critical situation arose for the Armenians and that the Azerbaijanis could've further advanced, capturing Stepanakert, adding that the immediate cessation of the warfare was in the interest of the Armenian side.[214] In the meanwhile, Putin also stated that Pashinyan had the opportunity to sign a ceasefire agreement with Azerbaijan in October, with the Armenian forces still controlling Shusha,[215] though with the Azerbaijani refugees of the First Nagorno-Karabakh War returning to the city.[216] Putin added that Pashinyan rejected this offer, which Pashinyan confirmed later on.[217]
Pashinyan, in response to the allegations of Shusha being "sold out," stated that Shusha was an "unhappy and dull city," asking if the Armenians needed it or not,[218] Then, in January 2021, at a meeting held by the Armenian government in the parliament, Pashinyan stated in response to a question from Naira Zohrabyan, a member of Prosperous Armenia, that "there was no option in the whole negotiation process to prevent the Azerbaijani refugees from returning to Shusha," adding that before the Armenian forces seized control of Shusha in 1992, "90% or more of the city's residents were Azerbaijanis."[219] These statements created a resonance in the country, with political figures like Ara Abramyan,[220]Aram Sargsyan,[221]Mikayel Minasyan,[222] Naira Zohrabyan,[223]Robert Kocharyan,[224] and Zaruhi Postanjyan,[225] criticising Pashinyan.[226] At a briefing, local journalists asked the MPs representing My Step Alliance, which is led by Pashinyan, whether or not they had "any doubts" of Shusha being "an Armenian city," though left the briefing without answering the question.[219] On 29 January, a journalist protested Pashinyan's statement in front of the building of the Armenian government.[227] Vice-president of the Armenian National Assembly, Alen Simonyan, stated that the local media had "misinterpreted" Pashinyan's statement and taken his words "out of context," adding that "provocations that exist in the media should be related to journalism."[228] Pashinyan also responded to the public backlash via Facebook live, calling it a "media manipulation."[229]
On 3 December 2020, Deputy Head of the Shushi Province, Samvel Harutyunyan, stated that about 4,500 Armenians were displaced from Shusha.[33] Later, in January 2021, the Armenian Mayor of Shusha, Artsvik Sargsyan, stated that the Armenian refugees from Shusha, who "didn't know what was going on," and were thinking that they were "leaving for a few days, soon the issues would be resolved, and they would return to their homes," had faced with unfavourable living conditions, and high rent prices, as well as lack of food and clothing in Armenia despite the efforts of the charity organisations.[230]
In January 2021, former director of the Armenian
Homeland detachment, led by another former director of the NSS, Artur Vanetsyan, had left their positions during the battle, though Vanetsyan, and other members of the detachment later denied this claim.[231][232][233]
Azerbaijan
In contrast, the announcement of the city's capture by the Azerbaijani president Ilham Aliyev led to celebration among the Azerbaijanis, with flag-waving, singing, and the sounding of car horns in Baku, the country's capital.[77][78][234] A wreath-laying ceremony took place at the Alley of Honor in Baku with the participation of Aliyev and the Vice President Mehriban Aliyeva.[235] Ships moored in the Bay of Baku honked their horns,[236] and the Azerbaijanis in Moscow celebrated with a firework display,[79] while cars decorated with the flags of Azerbaijan and Turkey rallied through Brooklyn, New York.[237] In Azerbaijan, some political figures labelled the battle the Divorce in the Mountains (Azerbaijani: Dağlarda boşanma), in reference to the Armenian name Operation Wedding in the Mountains (Armenian: «Հարսանիք լեռներում» ռազմագործողություն) for the 1992 capture of the city.[238]
On 20 November, at a plenary session of the Azerbaijani National Assembly, a draft bill on amendments to the bill "On the establishment of orders and medals of the Republic of Azerbaijan" was submitted for discussion.[239] The For the Liberation of Shusha Medal was established on the same day in the first reading in accordance with the bill on the occasion of Azerbaijan recording a victory in the battle and winning the war,[82] with Ilham Aliyev proposing the medal's name.[240] On 1 December, the Azerbaijani singer Samra Rahimli, known for representing Azerbaijan in Eurovision Song Contest 2016, released a song titled Shusha, we are back (Azerbaijani: Şuşa, biz qayıtmışıq).[241] 27 September and 10 November were declared Memorial Day and Victory Day respectively,[242][243] although the latter's date was changed to 8 November as the previous date overlapped with Mustafa Kemal Atatürk's Memorial Day in Turkey.[80]
Azerbaijani servicemen who took part in the battle during a victory parade in Baku on 10 December 2020.[244]
In November, the State Agency of Azerbaijan Automobile Roads started the construction of a four-lane highway to Shusha, labelled the "Victory Road",[252] which begins in Alxanlı, and takes a route via Fuzuli, and the Topkhana Forest.[253] A groundbreaking ceremony for the highway, which is planned to stretch 101 kilometres (63 mi) and be 37 metres (121 ft) wide, occurred on 24 November in the presence of the Azerbaijani president Ilham Aliyev, and the First-Vice President Mehriban Aliyeva. The road will also link up with the Baku–Shirvan–Saatly–Horadiz route.[254][255] It is planned to get finished by September 2021.[252] On 12 November, the Azerbaijani Ministry of Internal Affairs stated that it had moved the Shusha police department, which was previously located in Tartar District, into Shusha,[256] while the organizers of the Turkvision Song Contest stated that they were exploring the possibility of holding the contest's 2021 version in Shusha,[257] and in January 2021, the Azerbaijani Ministry of Culture started preparatory activities on the Khari Bulbul Festival and Days of the Poetry of Vagif.[258] In December, the chairman of the Public Association Organization for the Protection of Historical and Cultural Monuments in the Occupied Territories of Azerbaijan, Faig Ismayilov, stated that the Azerbaijani refugees of the First Nagorno-Karabakh War from Shusha will start returning to the city at least by summer 2021,[259] while the chairman of the Azerbaijani Community of Nagorno-Karabakh and the Azerbaijani MP, Tural Ganjaliyev, stated that they were planning to relocate the community to the city in the near future.[260]
On 5 January 2021, Shusha was declared the cultural capital of Azerbaijan,
Turkic Council, Baghdad Amreev, during a teleconference with President Aliyev, stated that Shusha will be declared the cultural capital of the Turkic world in 2022.[263] On 15 January, the President Aliyev and the First-Vice President Aliyeva visited Shusha.[264] The next day, busts of Khurshidbanu Natavan, Uzeyir Hajibeyov and Bulbul, which were kept in the yard of the National Art Museum in Baku since the Armenian forces captured Shusha in 1992, were returned to the city, while Aliyev hoisted the Azerbaijani flag in the city centre.[265][266] On 27 January, Aliyev appointed Aydin Karimov as his special representative in the city.[267]
Role of Russia
On 9 November, the day when the ceasefire agreement was signed, the Azerbaijani forces in Nakhchivan Autonomous Republic accidentally[268]shot down a RussianMil Mi-24 attack helicopter near Yeraskh, in Armenia.[269][270] According to Anton Troianovski and Carlotta Gall of The New York Times, this potentially gave Russia a reason to intervene in the war, and the Russian president Vladimir Putin delivered an ultimatum to the Azerbaijani president Ilham Aliyev. According to Troianovski and Gall, in this ultimatum, Russia stated that if Azerbaijan did not cease its operations after seizing control of Shusha, it would intervene. The same night, an unknown missile hit an open area in Khyrdalan, near Baku, without causing any injuries, according to Azerbaijani sources.[271][272] Also, yet again on the same day, a video emerged on the social media apparently showing the Armenian forces launching a Russian-made Iskander missile into Azerbaijan.[273] The former Head of the Military Control Service of the Armenian MoD Movses Hakobyan, right after resigning from his post on 19 November 2020, confirmed the use of an Iskander missile on Azerbaijan by Armenia, though he did not say where the missile hit.[274] According to Can Kasapoğlu, the Director of Security and Defence Studies Program at the Centre for Economics and Foreign Policy Studies, an Istanbul-based independent think tank, Armenia could've used Iskander missiles only with Russia's consent.[275]
Wagner Group
On 28 September 2020, Russian media reported that Russian private military companies were ready to fight against Azerbaijan in Nagorno-Karabakh.[276] On 1 October, Radio Free Europe/Radio Liberty, citing a Wagner Group source, claimed they were already in Nagorno-Karabakh and participating in hostilities.[277] The Russian military analyst Pavel Felgenhauer also stated that Wagner contractors were sent to support the Armenian forces as ATGM operators.[278] After the war, in December 2020, a photo of a Wagner mercenary, apparently taken in front a church in Shusha during the war, appeared on the internet. Also, the Russian media leaked a message, apparently describing how the Armenian government refused to pay the Russian mercenaries for their work, and how, because of the, some of the Wagner mercenaries intended to return to Russia or defect to the Azerbaijani side. The Russian media reported that, in November, there were about 500 Russian mercenaries fighting on the Armenian side,[279] and some 300 Russian mercenaries had taken part in the Battle of Shusha, with Victor Zlobov, a retired captain of the Russian Armed Forces, stating that Shusha was "defended mainly thanks to the Russian volunteers."[280][281]
The Russian businessman Yevgeny Prigozhin, who has been linked to the Wagner Group, denied any involvement of the Russian PMCs in the war.[277] According to the Armenian journalist Karine Ghazaryan, writing for Bellingcat, there was no "any firm evidence showing their arrival or involvement in the war." She stated that Reverse Side of the Medal (RSOTM), a media channel linked to Wagner Group, which, according to Ghazaryan, was the main source of the reports, was not the "breaking news source."[282]