the Ministries of Economy and Environmental Protection and Natural Resources of Azerbaijan issued a joint statement indicating that they would be initiating environmental monitoring in the territory of the Republic of Artsakh. On the same day, a group of Azerbaijanis tried to enter the Kashen mine, but the mine’s security staff did not allow it.

Azerbaijan cut off the gas supply from Armenia to Artsakh. The Azerbaijani gas supply agency Azeriqaz denied involvement. On the evening of 13 December Azerbaijani media reported that Internal Troops of the Ministry of Internal Affairs of Azerbaijan and the police arrived to the area of the protests to “ensure the security of the participants of the action”.

The alleged “ecoactivists” added to their list of demands “restoration of control by all state structures of Azerbaijan, including the Ministry of Internal Affairs, the State Border Service, and the State Customs Committee” along the Lachin corridor. One of the Azerbaijani self-described protesters Dilara Efendiyeva created a hotline to appeal for assistance in crossing the blockade; however, this has been dismissed as ingenuine or propaganda by many Armenians. On the same day, 40,000–70,000 Artsakh residents rallied in the capital Stepanakert in protest of the blockade,making it one of the largest protests in Nagorno-Karabakh since the 1988 Karabakh movement.

Azerbaijan specified that the blockade would be lifted if state monitors were permitted entry into the mining sites used by Artsakh.

The Armenian prime minister criticized the Russian peacekeeping forces for not maintaining open transport in and out of Artsakh and suggested the role be delegated to a United Nations peacekeeping mission, a suggestion that Azerbaijan rejected.

The parliament of Artsakh called on the US, France and Russia to take action to open the corridor or begin the operation of an airlift to Stepanakert’s airport to prevent an “urgent humanitarian crisis”. Artsakh’s state minister, Ruben Vardanyan, said “Pressure from international organizations, European countries and the United States would have great significance. The only solution which will allow us to live normally in this situation in the winter months is the possibility of opening an air bridge.”

Artsakh announced that coupons would be issued to people in order to purchase scarce supplies. The government issued a rationing system to commence on 20 January of buckwheat, rice, sugar, pasta and cooking oil.

The electricity operator of Artsakh reported that the high-voltage power line supplying electricity to Artsakh from Armenia was damaged on the Aghavno-Berdzor section of the corridor under Azerbaijani control and that Azerbaijan is hindering restoration works on the line. In addition, the Armenian Prime Minister announced that the planned CSTO military exercises would not be held in Armenia due to the situation, while Moscow downplayed Armenia’s refusal to host the alliance.

Artsakh’s InfoCenter reported that the only gas pipeline delivering gas to Artsakh from Armenia was interrupted again.

The European Parliament adopted a resolution condemning the blockade, describing it as a humanitarian crisis and a violation of the 2020 ceasefire declaration. It also called for Azerbaijan to “protect the rights of Armenians living in Nagorno-Karabakh and refrain from its inflammatory rhetoric that calls for discrimination against Armenians and urges Armenians to leave Nagorno-Karabakh.” The resolution also “condemns the inaction of Russian ‘peacekeepers’; considers that their replacement with OSCE international peacekeepers, under a UN mandate, should be negotiated urgently”

A panel discussion was held on the sidelines of the 2023 Munich Security Conference. The Prime Minister of Armenia Pashinyan discussed the humanitarian consequences of Azerbaijan’s blockade. The live streaming broadcast was interrupted on various official Azeri state media channels right after Pashinyan talked about how the elections in Armenia after the second Nagorno-Karabakh War were held in a democratic and free competitive environment.

The former Prime Minister of Denmark and NATO Secretary General, Anders Fogh Rasmussen, visited the Lachin corridor stated that the Azerbaijani government is backing the blockade while using the pretext of an environmental protest. He proposed European and American military support to Armenia as an emerging democracy “to prevent another significant conflict or even ethnic cleansing in the our [the West’s] backyard.”

Laurent Wauquiez, the president of the Auvergne-Rhône-Alpes Regional Council of France, visited the Lachin corridor as part of a French delegation to Armenia. He said the blockade marks the return of pan-Turkism to the 21st century. Wauquiez said he intends to send a blockade-busting humanitarian convoy to Nagorno-Karabakh, as a joint initiative by his region of Auvergne-Rhone-Alpes and the Armenian community of France.

In violation of the ceasefire agreement, Azerbaijani forces installed a military checkpoint at the Lachin corridor, at the Hakari/Kornidzor bridge next to a Russian peacekeeping base, a move that drew concerns and criticism from the Russian Federation, PACE, the United States, France, UK, and Canada. Video footage showed Russian peacekeepers not intervening as construction of the Azerbaijani military checkpoint was underway.

Azerbaijani forces crossed the Hakari bridge and attempted to raise an Azerbaijani flag but were repelled by the Armenian border guards who opened fire. After the incident, Azerbaijan blocked all passage through the Lachin corridor, including humanitarian convoys from the Red Cross and Russian peacekeepers. Video footage showed Azerbaijani forces placing concrete road blocks on the bridge.