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Zelensky's positive test and the Karabakh ceasefire
Summary
A look back at a day when Ukraine's leadership faced COVID-19 and a Russian-backed deal reshaped the South Caucasus.
What did Kyiv's political class and its neighbourhood face on 10 November 2020? Two developments, reported on 9 November, framed that day: illness at the top of Ukraine's government and a war-ending deal in the South Caucasus.
In Ukraine, President Volodymyr Zelensky tested positive for COVID-19, as did the head of the Presidential Office, Andriy Yermak. As reported at the time, two top government officials were among those infected alongside the president. The news placed the pandemic squarely in the country's highest offices.
In the region, Armenian Prime Minister Nikol Pashinyan announced that he had signed a deal with Azerbaijan and Russia to end the Second Nagorno-Karabakh War by the morning of Tuesday, 10 November. A Kremlin spokesman confirmed it. Azerbaijan's president, Ilham Aliyev, described a trilateral agreement, and Russian President Vladimir Putin said Russian peacekeepers would be deployed.
What the deal set out
The agreement ceded several districts to Azerbaijan, including the Lachin District. It also provided for a transport corridor through Armenia linking Azerbaijan to Nakhchivan.
Why it mattered
The two stories were unconnected, but both showed how quickly circumstances could shift. Ukraine's leadership had to manage the pandemic while its own president was ill. Meanwhile, Russia's role as signatory and peacekeeper in the Karabakh settlement was set out in the terms announced by the parties.
