Azerbaijan accused the Armenian Armed Forces of shelling a number of settlements, including the city of Ganja. According to the Azerbaijani side, 13 people were killed as a result of the missile strike. The Ministry of Defense of the country also reported on the shelling from the Armenian side of the regions around Nagorno-Karabakh. In turn, the Armenian Defense Ministry accused Azerbaijan of shelling the cities of Stepanakert and Shushi. The UN expressed concern over the situation in the conflict zone and called on the parties to observe the ceasefire.
The Ministry of Emergency Situations of Azerbaijan announced the death of 13 people as a result of a missile strike on the city of Ganja.
“The bodies of 13 dead were removed from the rubble, 52 people were wounded,” TASS reports the department.
Earlier, the Azerbaijani Defense Ministry accused the Armenian Armed Forces of shelling the city on Saturday night. Aide to the President of Azerbaijan Hikmet Hajiyev on Twitter also said that the missile strike on the city was launched from the territory of Armenia, and reported on the strike on another large city – Mingachevir.
In addition, the Ministry of Defense of Azerbaijan reported about the shelling of the regions around Nagorno-Karabakh from the Armenian side.
“Grossly violating the humanitarian ceasefire regime, the Armenian armed forces are shelling the territories of Terter, Aghdam, Barda and Aghjabedi regions this morning,” the ministry said.
They noted that the situation in the conflict zone “remains tense”, and also announced the destruction of several units of military equipment of the Armenian side, including seven T-72 tanks, two BM-21 Grad multiple launch rocket systems, nine howitzers and ten trucks with ammunition.
Azerbaijani President Ilham Aliyev, commenting on the shelling of Ganja, called the attacks on the city a “war” crime, and said that the Armenian leadership should be held accountable for the shelling of the civilian population.
In turn, the press secretary of the Armenian Defense Ministry Shushan Stepanyan on Friday evening reported that the Armenian military had spotted Azerbaijani drones in the country's airspace. Later, the ministry told about the destruction of two UAVs of the Azerbaijani Armed Forces.
At the same time, Stepanyan noted that Azerbaijan's statement about the defeat of the Armenian SU-25 attack aircraft does not correspond to reality and is disinformation.
A representative of the Armenian Defense Ministry stated that on the morning of October 17, the cities of Nagorno-Karabakh, Stepanakert and Shushi, were subjected to rocket and artillery fire.
“The enemy forces, once again violating the humanitarian ceasefire, resumed their missile attacks on peaceful settlements at dawn. The most intense attacks were made on the civilian infrastructure of Stepanakert and Shushi, ”Stepanyan said in a Facebook post.
She noted that the units of Nagorno-Karabakh retaliated.
Meanwhile, the press secretary of the Armenian Prime Minister Mane Gevorgyan said that Yerevan, on Russia's initiative, sent its military to Moscow to meet with representatives of the Azerbaijani Defense Ministry, but Baku, according to her, refused to take a similar step.
“According to our information, Baku did not send its representatives to this meeting,” she said.
Recall that in the zone of the Nagorno-Karabakh conflict from noon on October 10, a ceasefire regime entered into force, an agreement on which was reached during the trilateral negotiations of the foreign ministers of Russia, Azerbaijan and Armenia held in Moscow.
The ceasefire was announced for humanitarian purposes – for the exchange of prisoners and bodies of the dead, which will take place through the mediation of the Red Cross. It was also announced that Baku and Yerevan “are starting substantive negotiations” for the earliest possible achievement of a peaceful settlement of the conflict.
After the ceasefire came into force, Azerbaijan and Armenia several times accused each other of violating it.
On October 14, Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov announced that peacekeepers should be deployed in the Nagorno-Karabakh region to control the maintenance of the ceasefire.
“At the first stage, in addition to the liberation of the two regions, all communications, economic ties, transport contacts would be unblocked, and peacekeepers would be deployed to guarantee the non-resumption of hostilities,” RIA Novosti quoted him as saying.
Prior to this, the press secretary of the Russian President Dmitry Peskov noted that Moscow would be ready to send peacekeepers to the conflict zone only with the consent of both sides.
Meanwhile, the UN has again expressed concern over the situation in the zone of the Nagorno-Karabakh conflict.
“We are extremely concerned about the suffering of the civilian population. It is necessary to reiterate with the strong condemnation of any actions directed against the civilian population or civilian infrastructure, ”said the official representative of the organization's secretary general, Stephane Dujarrick.
Dujarrik added that the situation in the conflict zone “is changing rapidly, and it is very important that both sides move quickly towards de-escalation, since it is clear that there is a threat of an expansion of the conflict and further destabilization in the region.”
He called on the parties to observe the ceasefire, and announced the organization's readiness to provide humanitarian assistance to the residents of the region.
