Nagorno-Karabakh’s Defense Army said that Azerbaijan used firearms of different calibers as well as attack drones in engaging ethnic Armenian forces early on March 25.
“As a result of the skirmish five Armenians soldiers were wounded,” the Defense Army said, claiming that at least five Azerbaijani soldiers were killed in the fight.
Azerbaijan’s Defense Ministry denied reports from the Armenian side both about the fighting and casualties on the Azerbaijani side, describing such reports as “media provocation.”
It said, as quoted by Azerbaijani media, that “specifications of positions and locations are taking place on the ground without any use of force.”
The Defense Army said that the situation was “relatively stable” as of Friday morning.
“We expect the Russian peacekeepers to take measures to make the Azerbaijani forces to withdraw to their initial positions,” the Nagorno-Karabakh military said in a statement.
Earlier reports from Stepanakert said that Azerbaijani forces had violated the line of contact from the Agdam district east of Nagorno-Karabakh and advanced into the village of Parukh in the region’s Askeran district.
Azerbaijan’s Defense Ministry on Thursday denied any advancement of its troops “in the territory of Azerbaijan where the Russian peacekeeping contingent is temporarily deployed.” Instead, it spoke about “specifications of positions and locations on the ground,” stressing that “no clashes or incidents had occurred.”
The latest escalation of tensions in Nagorno-Karabakh was condemned by Armenia’s Foreign Ministry, which issued a statement late on March 24 accusing Azerbaijan of violating the terms of the ceasefire brokered by Russia following a deadly war in the region in the fall of 2020.
The ministry said that the situation was also discussed in a telephone conversation between Armenian Foreign Minister Ararat Mirzoyan and U.S. Assistant Secretary of State for European and Eurasian Affairs Karen Donfried.
“Both sides highlighted the importance of steps aimed at de-escalation [in Nagorno-Karabakh],” the Armenian ministry said.
Meanwhile, Armenia’s Defense Ministry reported late on Thursday that the situation in Nagorno-Karabakh was discussed in a telephone conversation between Armenian Defense Minister Suren Papikian and his Russian counterpart Sergey Shoigu.
“Sergey Shoigu gave assurances that the situation was in the center of the Russian side’s attention and that necessary steps were being taken to resolve it peacefully,” the Armenian ministry said.
According to Russia’s Tass news agency, Shoigu also discussed tensions in Nagorno-Karabakh with Azerbaijani Defense Minister Zakir Hasanov.
Nagorno-Karabakh, an autonomous region in Soviet Azerbaijan, has been claiming its independence from Baku since the collapse of the Soviet Union and a separatist war waged in the early 1990s that also led to ethnic Armenians making territorial gains inside Azerbaijan proper.
The standoff with Baku led to another war in September-November 2020 in which nearly 7,000 soldiers and more than 200 civilians were killed. As a result of that war Azerbaijani forces gained control of parts of Nagorno-Karabakh, as well as seven adjacent districts that had been under Armenian control since 1994.
Some 2,000 Russian troops were deployed in the region to monitor the ceasefire following the Moscow-brokered truce.