YEREVAN, October 13, /ARKA/ The town of Hadrut and the village of Talish in Artsakh (Nagorno-Karabakh) are fully controlled by the Armenian forces, official representative of the Armenian Ministry of Defense Artsrun Hovhannisyan said at a press briefing late on October 12.
He said Azerbaijan was not ready to respect the ceasefire agreement reached October 10 in Moscow by Armenian and Azerbaijani foreign ministers. ‘The statement of the Azerbaijani leadership that they were ready to implement the agreement is completely false,” he said.
He pointed out that Azerbaijan uses any pretext to raise the degree of tension and starts hostilities.
“Early in the morning of October 12, they began offensive operations in three or four directions. In particular, heavy artillery was used in the direction of Martakert. Throughout the day, the Azerbaijani Air Force, under the cover of the Turkish air force and the support of intelligence and control centers, using numerous attack drones, carried out 36 combat missions. Karabakh air defense units managed to shoot down a Su-25 attack aircraft in the northern direction,” Hovhannisyan said.
According to him, battles in the southern direction Azerbaijani troops used artillery and other weapons. He noted that the fighting continued until late.
“At night, the enemy, hiding from the strikes of our troops, tries to regroup in order to methodically start offensive actions in the morning,” Hovhannisyan said.
Hovhannisyan said on Monday that 3 more UAVs, 1 aircraft were shot down by Armenians on October 12, and also 3 pieces of military equipment and about 200 soldiers were killed.
On September 27th the Azerbaijani military launched a large-scale offensive against the Republic of Artsakh (Nagorno-Karabakh) using missiles, artillery and suicide drones against civilian populations in Artsakh’s capital Stepanakert as well as other civilian populations in and around Artsakh, as well as against certain areas of the Republic of Armenia’s town of Vardenis, causing death and injury to dozens of civilians.
According to official Armenian sources, some 4,919 Azerbaijani soldiers have been killed in the heavy fighting since September 27 and more than 5,000 have been wounded. Armenian troops have destroyed 512 tanks and armored vehicles, 4 MLRS Smerch and Uragan, 4 MLRS TOS-1A, 147 UAVs, 16 helicopters and 17 aircraft.
According to the defense ministries of Armenia and Artsakh, more than 430 Armenian servicemen have been killed and several hundred have been wounded. As a result of war crimes committed by Azerbaijan, 25 civilians have been killed and over 100 wounded.
Armenia and Azerbaijan agreed to a Russia-brokered cease-fire in Nagorno-Karabakh starting at 12 pm October 10 after 10 hours of talks in Moscow sponsored by Russian Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov.
The parties reaffirmed their commitment to the humanitarian ceasefire for the exchange of prisoners of war and the bodies of those killed through the mediation of the International Committee of the Red Cross.
The Armenian Foreign Ministry said in a statement October 10 evening that violating its own commitment, Azerbaijan continued military operations in various sectors of the frontline, firing also at settlements of the Syunik region of Armenia.