“The Karabakh side appeals to the Azerbaijani side to immediately cease the hostilities and sit down at the negotiation table with the aim of settling the situation,” it said in a statement issued late in the afternoon.
The office of Azerbaijani President Ilham Aliyev responded by saying that it is ready to meet with Karabakh Armenian representatives in the Azerbaijani town of Yevlakh. It stressed at the same time that the Azerbaijani offensive will continue unless the Karabakh Armenians disband their government bodies and armed forces.
Karabakh’s Defense Army reported around the same time that “the intensity of gunfire has significantly eased.” But it said two hours later that heavy fighting is continuing along the entire “line of contact.” The Azerbaijani side is using not only heavy artillery and combat drones but also warplanes, it said.
A senior aide to Aliyev told Turkish television, meanwhile, that the Azerbaijani army is close to achieving the objectives of its “counterterrorism operation.” It has already “neutralized military targets” in Karabakh, he said without elaborating.
The fighting broke out early in the afternoon, with Azerbaijani forces shelling various parts of Karabakh and reportedly attacking Karabakh army positions along “the line of contact.” The scale of their territorial gains was not immediately clear.
The authorities in Stepanakert said that five Karabakh residents were killed and 80 others wounded as a result of the worst fighting in and around Karabakh since the 2020 Armenian-Azerbaijani war. At least 15 of them are civilians.
The Armenian government urged Russian peacekeeping forces in Karabakh to step in to halt the hostilities and protect Karabakh’s civilian population. A senior Russian lawmaker reportedly ruled out their intervention, however.
“As long as nothing threatens the lives of the Russian peacekeepers, they have no right to use force,” said Andrei Kartapolov.
Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov said that Russian military commanders on the ground are trying to “return the settlement process to the political and diplomatic channel.” He did not go into details. Peskov also implicitly denied Baku’s claims that it notified the peacekeepers about its offensive beforehand.
The European Union called for an immediate end to the offensive. In a clear message to Azerbaijan, EU foreign policy chief, Josep Borrell, also said: “This military escalation should not be used as a pretext to force the exodus of the local population.”
Armenian Prime Minister Nikol Pashinian discussed the escalation with French President Emmanuel Macron and U.S. Secretary of State Antony Blinken in separate phone calls. France condemned Baku’s actions and pledged to initiate an emergency session of the UN Security Council on the situation in Karabakh.