“As of 11 a.m., no significant incidents were registered on the Armenian-Azerbaijani border,” Davit Torosian, the spokesman for the Armenian Defense Ministry, said in a short statement posted on Facebook. There was also no major fighting there overnight, he said earlier in the day.
Torosian reported late on Wednesday that the hostilities all but stopped at 8 p.m. local time. The secretary of Armenia’s Security Council, Armen Grigorian, announced shortly after midnight that Baku and Yerevan have agreed a new ceasefire deal brokered by the international community.
The European Union on Thursday welcomed the deal and said it is “encouraged by reports that it is being respected so far.” An EU spokesman called on both sides to “continue its implementation.”
The hostilities broke out on Monday night, with Azerbaijani troops shelling and attacking Armenian army positions at many sections of the long frontier. Armenian border towns and villages also came under Azerbaijani artillery fire, forcing thousands of their residents to flee their homes.
Azerbaijan claimed that the fighting was sparked by Armenian cross-border “provocations.” In that context, it also accused Armenia of dragging out negotiations on a bilateral peace treaty.
Armenian leaders say Baku resorted to military action in a bid to force Yerevan to fully accept its terms of the treaty and cede Armenian territory for an “exterritorial corridor” connecting Azerbaijan to its Nakhichevan exclave.
Prime Minister Nikol Pashinian said on Thursday that at least 105 Armenian soldiers were killed in the fierce border clashes. The Azerbaijani military has so far acknowledged 71 combat deaths within its ranks.
Russia reportedly scrambled to halt the hostilities hours after their outbreak. The United States and the EU also moved to deescalate the situation.
Russian President Vladimir Putin is due to meet with his Azerbaijani counterpart Ilham Aliyev on Friday on the sidelines of a summit of the Shanghai Cooperation Organization in Uzbekistan.
Pashinian was also scheduled to attend the summit. But he cancelled his participation due to the worst escalation of the Nagorno-Karabakh conflict since the 2020 Armenian-Azerbaijani war.