The Azerbaijani Defense Ministry announced that Armenia had violated the ceasefire in Nagorno-Karabakh, the ministry's press service reported on Facebook.
“Despite the announcement of a new humanitarian ceasefire on October 26 at 8:00 (07:00 Moscow time – RBK ), the Armenian armed forces again grossly violated the agreement reached,” the press service reported.
Later, it was said in Baku that the Armenian armed forces fired at Azerbaijani units in the village of Safyan. Then the military department added that “the enemy fired at the Terter region.”
The press secretary of the Armenian Defense Ministry Shushan Stepanyan called these reports disinformation. “The Ministry of Defense of Azerbaijan at 8:00 (07:00 Moscow time – RBK ) hastened to accuse the Armenian side of gross violation of the ceasefire, but after a while deleted this information,” she wrote on Facebook.
Stepanyan cited a statement by the Defense Ministry of the unrecognized Nagorno-Karabakh Republic, which stated that Baku's accusations were untrue and made for further provocations.
In turn, Armenian Prime Minister Nikol Pashinyan wrote on Facebook that Yerevan intends to adhere to the previously reached agreement. “As it was agreed yesterday in Washington with the mediation of the United States, the Armenian side will fully comply with the ceasefire from 8:00 (07:00 Moscow time – RBK, ” he said.
Last weekend, the Foreign Ministers of Armenia and Azerbaijan, Zohrab Mnatsakanyan and Jeyhun Bayramov, held talks in Washington with the participation of US Deputy Secretary of State Stephen Bigan. Assistant to the President for National Security Robert O'Brien stated that Yerevan is ready for a new ceasefire, but Baku does not agree to this yet.
Later in Washington it was reported that agreements between the warring parties had been reached – the new ceasefire was supposed to come into force from 8:00 local time (07:00 Moscow time) on October 26.
Later, American President Donald Trump congratulated Azerbaijani President Ilham Aliyev and Armenian Prime Minister Nikol Pashinyan on the new truce. In Nagorno-Karabakh, they stated that they are ready for a new regime of silence.
This is the third truce negotiated by the warring parties. The first two were achieved with the participation of Moscow on October 10 and 17. However, almost immediately after the agreement was concluded, the parties mutually accused each other of the shelling, and the fighting on the line of contact continued. The Karabakh conflict escalated on September 27: martial law was introduced in Armenia, Azerbaijan and the unrecognized republic, and mobilization was announced. The parties are using aviation and artillery, there are many civilian casualties.
