EU vehicles travel to the Armenia border on the first day of a civilian mission on Feb. 20

Moscow had the strongest reaction to date to the European Union’s Armenia mission that launched on Monday, with the country’s foreign ministry accusing the EU of attempting to “squeeze Russia out of the region,” the Tass news agency reported.

“Regrettably, this is not the first time we see that the European Union is sparing no efforts to win a foothold in our allied Armenia,” Russian Foreign Ministry spokesperson Maria Zakharova said Monday in a written response to a reporter’s question. “We see solely political motives, which are far from the interests of real normalization of relations in the South Caucasus.”

Zakharova said that Russia “is sparing no effort to squeeze Russia out of the region and weaken its historical role as a key security guarantor. Baku’s openly voiced negative views about this initiative are being ignored.”

According to Zakharova, “the European Union’s record of settling regional conflicts is quite dubious.”

“I don’t think Brussels can boast any achievements in this field. It is enough to remember the European Union’s mediatory efforts and its mission in Kosovo,” she added.

Zakharova stressed that a key factor for stability and security in the region in the foreseeable future is the package of agreements between the Russian, Azerbaijani and Armenian leaders.

“The shortest way to improve the situation in the region lies via the comprehensive implementation of these agreements, including the unblocking of transport communication, the delimitation of the Armenian-Azerbaijani border, establishment of ties between peoples, experts, religious circles, parliamentarians of the two countries, and through peace treaty talks. Russia is ready to continue to promote this,” Zakharova said.

Russia on Friday accused the West of derailing the process to normalize relations between Armenia and Azerbaijan, when Zakharova reacted to a recent State Department statement, which accused Russia of disrupting the efforts of the OSCE Minsk Group in the mediation of a settlement for the Armenia-Azerbaijan conflict.

“If anyone has derailed the Armenian-Azerbaijani settlement efforts then it’s they themselves, the Western countries, led by the United States,” Zakharova said at a news conference on Friday.

“The OSCE Minsk Group format was sent into the ash heap of history after the American and French co-chairs stopped cooperating with their Russian counterpart in February of 2022 under a made-up pretext,” Zakharova said, adding that no explanation has been issued since.