Exclusive-Senior US officials traveling to Armenia as Karabakh's Armenians start to leave

A refugee boy from Nagorno-Karabakh region looks out of a car window upon arrival at a temporary accommodation centre in the town of Goris, Armenia, September 25, 2023. REUTERS/Irakli Gedenidze

WASHINGTON (Reuters) - Senior Biden administration officials were to arrive in Armenia on Monday, a U.S. official told Reuters, after ethnic Armenians in Nagorno-Karabakh began a mass exodus on Sunday following Azerbaijan's defeat of the breakaway region's fighters in a conflict dating from the Soviet era.

The visit by U.S. Agency for International Development chief Samantha Power and U.S. State Department Acting Assistant Secretary for Europe and Eurasian Affairs Yuri Kim would be the first by senior U.S. officials to Armenia since a ceasefire last week.