Armenia and Azerbaijan exchanged accusations over the resumption of border attacks, a day after the most violent clashes between the two Caucasus countries since the 2020 war over the disputed Nagorno-Karabakh region.
Russia announced on Tuesday that it had negotiated a ceasefire after clashes that left more than 100 soldiers dead from both countries.
But the two countries exchanged accusations over a breach of the truce.
The Armenian Defense Ministry said the “enemy has resumed the attack using artillery, mortars and large-caliber firearms in the directions of Jermuk and Verin Shorzha” at the border.
“Despite the clear reaction of the international community on the situation, the political and military leadership of Azerbaijan de facto continues with its acts of aggression against the sovereign territory of Armenia, aiming against the military and civilian infrastructure,” he added.
On Tuesday night, the Azerbaijani Ministry of Defense accused Armenian forces of “violating the ceasefire (…) with shelling Azerbaijani positions near Kalbayar and Lachin with mortars and artillery pieces.
Tuesday’s escalation came as Russia, Yerevan’s main ally in the region and which sent thousands of peacekeepers to the region after the 2020 war, is busy invading Ukraine.
Armenia asked world leaders for help. The European Union, the United States, France, Russia, Iran and Turkey expressed concern about the escalation and called for an end to hostilities.
Armenia and Azerbaijan, two rival former Soviet republics in the Caucasus, have fought two wars in the last three decades for control of the Nagorno-Karabakh region.
Six weeks of fighting in 2020 left more than 6,500 dead and ended with a Russian-brokered ceasefire that sent nearly 2,000 troops to oversee the truce.
With the agreement, Armenia ceded parts of the territory it had controlled for decades.
The ethnic Armenian separatists of Nagorno-Karabakh broke away from Azerbaijan with the collapse of the Soviet Union in 1991. The subsequent conflict claimed nearly 30,000 deaths.
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