YEREVAN, October 15. /ARKA/. Artsrun Hovhannisyan, spokesman for the Armenian defense ministry, at a briefing on Wednesday, presented the situation on the Artsakh-Azerbaijan frontline and also pointed out the changes in the Azerbaijani army’s tactics.
“Early this morning, the Azerbaijani Armed Forces resumed large-scale offensive actions, especially in the northern direction and in the south, a little further from the Araks Valley,” he said.
Hovhannisyan noted that attempts were made in both directions to develop the offensive, mainly by infantry forces under the cover of intense artillery fire and with minimal use of military equipment.
“The enemy attacked with a very high density of infantry, dense rows. Our units inflicted them heavy losses and threw them back. The losses of the Azerbaijani army in manpower are quite high during today’s and yesterday’s battles,” he said.
The spokesman of the defense ministry noted that the enemy began to use a new strategy for taking heights using a large number of infantry.
“What we see in the videos is indescribable – we just don’t publish everything. Often this is how we see only in movies,” he said.
Hovhannisyan noted that the fighting continues even though at night, the intensity decreases somewhat. He said that the enemy also tried to use the air force today, but to no avail.
War in Artsakh
On September 27, at 07:10, Azerbaijani troops launched an offensive along the entire length of the contact line in Artsakh, but were thrown back in several directions. Intense fighting continues in the south, southeast and north of the front line. Turkey joined the aggression. Residential areas are being shelled as well.
The Azerbaijani side suffered losses in manpower (more than 5,489 people killed and thousands wounded) and equipment, in particular, 176 UAVs, 4 units of TOS – 1A, 4 Smerch and Uragan MLRS, more than 521 tanks and other armored vehicles, 16 helicopters and 19 aircraft. According to the data of the defense ministry of Armenia and Artsakh, more than 550 Armenian servicemen were killed and hundreds wounded on the Armenian side. Also 32 civilians were killed and more than 100 wounded on the Armenian side.
On October 9, following the meeting of the foreign ministers of Armenia and Azerbaijan, Zohrab Mnatsakanyan and Jeyhun Bayramov, with the mediation of Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov, an agreement was reached on a ceasefire from 12:00 on October 10 for humanitarian purposes for the exchange of prisoners of war and the bodies of the dead. Armenia and Azerbaijan, with the mediation of the OSCE Minsk Group co-chairs, on the basis of the basic principles of the settlement, are starting substantive negotiations with the aim of achieving a peaceful settlement as soon as possible.
Martial law and general mobilization were declared in Artsakh and Armenia.