Russia’s Defense Ministry on Tuesday said Azerbaijan violated the ceasefire at the line of contact on Monday in Artsakh, as a result of which a soldier of the Artsakh Defense Army was injured.
“During the past day, three cases of violation of the ceasefire regime by the Azerbaijani armed forces were registered in the zone of responsibility of the Russian peacekeeping troops, as a result of which the representative of the Armed Forces of Nagorno Karabakh was injured,” said a statement from Russia’s defense ministry.
“The command of the Russian peacekeepers resolved the situation together with the representatives of the Azerbaijani and Armenian sides,” the statement added.
Azerbaijani forces launched an offensive against Armenian positions at the north and northwest sections of Artsakh’s line of contact—around Berdzor (Lachin)—on Monday. According to the Artsakh Defense Army one of its servicemen, Albert Bakhshiyan was injured during the attack. He is reportedly in satisfactory condition and his life is not in danger, the army said.
On Tuesday, the Artsakh defense army cautiously reported that a “stable tension” was being maintained jointly by the Russian peacekeeping contingent and the Artsakh armed forces, which thwarted Azerbaijan’s attack on Monday, according to government reports.
“As we had reported earlier, jointly with the Defense Army command and the Russian peacekeeping contingent command the leadership of the country is taking measures to de-escalate the tension and not allow further escalations,” the Artsakh military said.
Despite reports that Prime Minister Nikol Pashinyan and Foreign Minister Ararat Mirzoyan on Tuesday held telephone conversations with their respective Russian counterparts—Vladimir Putin and Sergei Lavrov—the Armenian government has not commented on the most recent aggression by Azerbaijan against the Armenian population of Artsakh.
The recent attack, however, caught the attention of Toivo Klaar, the European Union’s representative in the South Caucasus, who voice concern about the escalation of tensions.
“The European Union is committed to deepening its involvement in the peace process. We are involved at different levels. It is important to de-escalate tensions and use the historic opportunity to turn the page of decades of conflict,” Toivo Klaar wrote in a Twitter post on Tuesday.
Artsakh President Arayik Harutyunyan convened an emergency session of Artsakh National Security Council that included representatives of the political faction in the country’s parliament, as well as Artsakh’s top military brass.
Artsakh Defense Minister Kamo Vartanyan told the Security Council that tensions continue in a number of the sections around the line of contact.
The emergency session also discussed a new route being constructed to bypass the current Lachin corridor and Baku’s demands to redirect traffic to the new road, the construction of which Azerbaijan concluded by hiring Turkish contractors.
