Sandbags and monks in khaki: Russian troops guard Armenian monastery after ceasefire
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Soldiers unloaded sandbags and monks donned khaki vests over their cassocks on Sunday after Russian peacekeepers arrived to guard the 12th century Armenian Dadivank monastery in territory due to be ceded to Azerbaijan within days.

Russia has deployed troops as part of a Moscow-brokered ceasefire deal to end six weeks of fighting between ethnic Armenian forces and Azeri troops over the enclave of Nagorno-Karabakh and surrounding areas.

Ethnic Armenians have set fire to their homes, severed electricity cables and cut down trees before leaving the area that is to be handed over to Baku’s control.

But Father Ovanes, the superior of the monastery, said he would not leave, regardless of whether there were Russian peacekeepers stationed there to protect him.

“I was prepared and I said: I’m not getting out of here,” he told Reuters.

Azerbaijan was initially expected to take over the Kalbajar region, controlled by ethnic Armenians since the end of the first war over Nagorno-Karabakh in 1994, on Sunday.