Armenia-Russia relations seemed on the brink of breakup Sunday as Armenian Prime Minister Nikol Pashinyan lashed at Moscow for failing to help protect his countrymen against Azerbaijan's military offensive in the disputed Nagorno-Karabakh.

In nationally televised comments, Pashinyan, who is being blamed by Armenians for the deaths of separatists in Nagorno-Karabakh, called the security guarantees of the Russian-led Collective Security Treaty Organization as "insufficient" and that Moscow failed to help Armenian defenders in the disputed territory.

Azerbaijani troops defeated Armenian rebels in Nagorno-Karabakh last week and are now disarming the separatists under a truce brokered by Moscow on Friday and with Russian peacekeepers facilitating the demilitarization.

Pashinyan added that Armenia should ratify the treaty which established the International Criminal Court, which has issued an arrest warrant for Russian President Vladimir Putin over the Ukraine war.

No sympathy

The first Red Cross aid convoy has crossed into the disputed Armenian enclave as Azerbaijan forces showed off Saturday part of the captured rebel arsenal: Sniper rifles, Kalashnikov rifles, rocket-propelled grenades and four tanks painted with cross insignia.

At Armenia's Kornidzor border crossing, five kilometers from the Hakari bridge, the convoy's route, dozens of angry Armenians await news of their relatives in Karabakh.

The first group of Nagorno-Karabakh refugees entered Armenia on Sunday, an Agence France-Presse team at the border said.

The group of a few dozen people were questioned by Azerbaijani border guards before entering the Armenian village of Kornidzor, where they were registered by Armenian officials.

On the other side of the border in the Azerbaijani town of Beylagan, just outside the breakaway region, local civilians had no sympathy for their Armenian neighbors and were celebrating their government's victory over the rebels.

State television played patriotic music paying tribute to the nation and its army, and the roadside was lined with flags and portraits of dozens of local "martyrs," fallen in the fighting during the previous 30 years.

WITH AFP