[60] The Azerbaijani government consolidated its blockade by seizing territory around the Lachin corridor both within Artsakh and Armenia, blocking alternative bypass routes, and installing military checkpoints.

[84][85][86] Multiple international observers also considered the blockade and the inaction of the Russian peacekeepers to be violations of the tripartite ceasefire agreement signed between Armenia, Azerbaijan, and Russia, which ended the Second Nagorno-Karabakh War and guaranteed safe passage through the Lachin corridor.

[115][116] The Parliamentary Assembly of the Council of Europe, Reporters Without Borders, and the International Federation of Journalists, have called on Azerbaijan to allow entry of independent organizations, including United Nations agencies.

[170][171][172][173] Speaking about Azerbaijan's demand for the Zangezur corridor, a senior Azerbaijani official reported to Eurasianet in November 2022, "What if we were to install a [border] post at the entrance of Lachin and finish the whole process?

[54] According to Azerbaijani media, environmental groups protested after being denied access to the Drmbon and Kashin mines and demanded a meeting with the commander of the Russian peacekeepers at the time, Andrei Volkov.

[199] 5 January — 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".

[203] 10 January — Armenian prime minister Pashinyan denied claims that Moscow had pressured Armenia to join the Union State of Russian and Belarus but said "the reality isn't as simple as it seems.

[214][215] 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.

[216] 22 February — the International Court of Justice ordered that Azerbaijan take all measures at its disposal to ensure unimpeded movement of persons, vehicles and cargo along the Lachin Corridor in both directions.

[217] 13 March — 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.

"[218][219] 25 March — in violation of the ceasefire agreement, Azerbaijani forces occupied new positions in Nagorno-Karabakh and closed an alternative dirt road that certain Armenians were using to bypass the blockade at the Lachin corridor.

[211][20][23][24] Artsakh officials also have reported that Azerbaijan's disruption of power and gas supplies has created long-term environmental issues due to the depletion of water reservoirs and the unplanned deforestation of thousands of trees.

[269] On 20 January, Artsakh authorities announced a coupon-based food rationing system that allocates one kilogram of pasta, buckwheat, rice, and sugar and a litre of cooking oil per month.

[271][272][273] A BBC News article from 6 January stated that the only product left for sale at the main market was dried thyme, that shop shelves were empty in all of Stepanakert, and that all basic medication had run out, even at the hospital.

But that is no excuse for ignoring another crisis that is brewing on Europe's doorstep...The intent [of the blockade], clearly, is to make life as difficult as possible for the Armenian population, and there is a serious risk of imminent ethnic cleansing.

"[333][334] Bedross Der Matossian, scholar in middle east history, describes the Russian peacekeepers as "inept" and compares them to the Belgian and Dutch peacepeekers before the Rwandan and Srebrenica genocides.

[246][32] Officials from Russia and the EU suggested that X-ray scanners or other "technical means" could be used to dispel allegations that the Lachin corridor was being used for military purposes, despite the fact that the ceasefire agreement does not limit the use of the road to humanitarian needs.

[350][212][213][351] The former Prime Minister of Denmark and NATO Secretary General, Anders Fogh Rasmussen, proposed European and American military support to Armenia as an emerging democracy to deter a large-scale conflict and/or ethnic cleansing in Artsakh.

[261] On 25 March, in violation of the ceasefire agreement, Azerbaijani forces occupied new positions in Nagorno-Karabakh and closed an alternative dirt road that certain Armenians were using to bypass the blockade at the Lachin corridor.

[257][380] According to Arif Yunusov, a department head of Azerbaijan's Institute for Peace and Democracy, the government bused students to the blockade site as an incentive to make up for poor school grades.

[388][389][390] Sheila Paylan, international human rights lawyer, points out that "Azerbaijan's sudden change of heart in respect of these particular protests is therefore per se discriminatory as they exclusively target Armenians.

[392][393][384] Other critics have said that the environmental pollution created by Azerbaijan's own extraction of fossil fuels – which generates a third of the country's GDP and 88% of its export revenue – has been ignored while the government and the protesters focus on Nagorno-Karabakh.

[54] Nationalist slogans took the place of environmental ones, and the participants were photographed making the hand symbol of the Gray Wolves, a Turkish ultra-nationalist organization with a history of committing violence against minorities in Turkey, including Armenians.

"[398] Armenia applied to the International Court of Justice with a request to oblige Azerbaijan to stop organizing and supporting the alleged demonstrations that have blocked free movement in both directions through the Lachin corridor.

[399][400] On 22 February 2023 the court reached a legally binding ruling after a 13–2 vote, thereby satisfying the request from Armenia and ordering Azerbaijan to "take all measures at its disposal to ensure unimpeded movement of persons, vehicles and cargo along the Lachin corridor in both directions,"[401][217] The court declined Armenia's request to order Azerbaijan to "cease its orchestration and support of the alleged 'protests' in Lachin corridor," considering this further measure unwarranted given the previously approved directive.

[85][86][20] Various critics argue that the conflict is not being presented in the West in the same light as Russia's invasion of Ukraine, despite the fact that Armenia and Artsakh are making democratic reforms against Azerbaijan's increasingly authoritarian state.

[411][259][412] Thomas de Waal, a political analyst and author of several books on the Nagorno-Karabakh conflict, wrote that the environmental activists were "evidently sent there by the [Azerbaijani] government" and are comparable to the "little green men" used by Russia to occupy Crimea in 2014, adding that "the eco-activists give Baku 'plausible deniability.

"[418] Nathalie Loiseau, a French MEP and chair of the European Parliament's Subcommittee on Security and Defense said "the blockade is illegal, cruel and contradictory with Baku's claims that the territory belongs to Azerbaijan.

"[416] Michael Rubin, senior fellow at the American Enterprise Institute (AEI) and ex-Pentagon official wrote "Azerbaijani President Ilham Aliyev's attempt to starve, if not eradicate, Armenian Christians was predictable...Dictators precipitate famines when they believe they can murder opponents without consequence.

"[92] Laurence Broers, a leading scholar on the Azerbaijan-Armenia conflict, wrote that "the starvation of the Armenian population will leave a new legacy of unforgiving distrust, cancelling any hopes of reconstituting community relations.