Russia criticized "public attacks" on its peacekeepers deployed around Karabakh as unacceptable, a day after Armenian Prime Minister Nikol Pashinian criticized the troops.

Azerbaijani civilian environmental activists have blockaded the only road between Armenia and the predominantly ethnic Armenian enclave since Dec. 12. Karabakh officials say food, medicine and fuel are running short.

On Thursday, Armenian news site Hetq quoted Pashinian as accusing the Russian peacekeeping force of "becoming a silent witness to the depopulation of Nagorno-Karabakh," having failed to reopen the road.

Pashinian said that if the Russian troops were unable to ensure stability and security in Karabakh, they should make way for a United Nations peacekeeping mission.

Russian Foreign Ministry spokesperson Maria Zakharova said: "We consider any public attacks and provocations against our peacekeepers as unacceptable and deliberate actions that cause tangible harm to the process of Armenian-Azerbaijani normalization."

Karabakh is internationally recognized as part of Azerbaijan but parts of its inhabitants are now predominantly ethnic Armenians. The region was occupied by Armenia in a war in the late 1980s and early 1990s, as the Soviet Union was disintegrating, resulting in ethnic Azerbaijanis being driven out of the region.

In 2020, Azerbaijan liberated its territory in and around the enclave after a second war that ended in a Russian-brokered cease-fire. Russian peacekeepers deployed along the Lachin corridor, the only road route between Armenia and Karabakh.