Mr. Speaker, the committee has been seized with the issue of Nagorno-Karabakh for some time, but the crisis has accelerated in intensity in the last several weeks as a result of an ever-tighter blockade of the Lachin corridor. This is a mountainous region of the world where there are not a lot of supply routes from the outside world into the region of Nagorno-Karabakh. One of the few supply routes into the region is the Lachin corridor, which has been blockaded by Baku authorities for some time. Russia, which is supposed to be the peacekeeper in this long-standing conflict, has not paid sufficient attention to what is going on and has failed to uphold its commitment to both Armenia and Azerbaijan.
As a result, the humanitarian crisis has accelerated. There are reports that up to a third of the 120,000 people living in Nagorno-Karabakh are malnourished and at risk of starvation.