On June 19, residents of Nagorno-Karabakh continued to face increasing shortages of food and medicine as Azerbaijan maintained a complete blockade on relief supplies to the Armenian-populated region. 

The situation was aggravated by the existing scarcity of essential items since commercial traffic through the main road connecting Karabakh to Armenia was blocked by Baku in December. During the past seven months, only vehicles accompanied by Russian peacekeeping forces and the International Committee of the Red Cross have been permitted to pass through the Lachin corridor.

Following a shootout near an Azerbaijani checkpoint established in the Lachin corridor in late April, the transportation of humanitarian convoys through the area was suspended on June 15.

On Monday, de-facto health authorities in Stepanakert/Khankendi announced that local hospitals had been forced to suspend non-urgent surgeries due to a severe shortage of drugs and other medical supplies. They further stated that 175 critically ill patients from Karabakh and their family members are currently awaiting evacuation to hospitals in Armenia.

The International Committee of the Red Cross (ICRC), responsible for evacuating critically ill patients from Karabakh for several months, also ceased its operations on June 15.

“We are monitoring the situation and remain in touch with all decision-makers," an ICRC spokeswoman in Stepanakert/Khankendi told RFE/RL’s Armenian Service. “We hope to resume our work as soon as the situation allows.”

Earlier, Armenian PM Nikol Pashinian strongly criticized the complete blockade of humanitarian traffic through the Lachin corridor, denouncing it as part of Azerbaijan's alleged “policy of ethnic cleansing” in Nagorno-Karabakh.

Read also: Relief Delivery to Karabakh Blocked by Azerbaijan