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Armenia invited the European Union’s monitoring mission without taking Azerbaijan’s opinion into account, which casts doubt on the mission’s effectiveness, TASS quoted Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov as saying on Wednesday.

"The question is what is the nature of the observation and whether Azerbaijan recognizes the mission," he noted. "I doubt that it will welcome such a mandate," Peskov added.

"This was a unilateral decision made by Yerevan," the Kremlin spokesman went on to say. "The potential effectiveness of such a mission should be called into question," he concluded.

Earlier, the Armenian parliament ratified an agreement with the European Union, which concerns an EU civilian observer mission on the border with Azerbaijan, granting diplomatic status to its members. Over 100 observers from the EU mission set to work in February 2023, carrying out patrols on the Armenian side of the border with Azerbaijan. On December 11, 2023, EU diplomat Josep Borrell announced a decision to increase the number of observers from 138 to 209.