Heavy fighting continues in Nagorno-Karabakh, Armenia and Azerbaijan accuse each other of violating the ceasefire

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“They are completely lies. Azerbaijan is preparing the ground for aggressive action in peaceful places,” a spokeswoman for the Armenian Ministry of Defense said. She added that Azerbaijan is attacking on all fronts.

Nagorno-Karabakh authorities report that since the start of the fighting on September 27, the number of civilian casualties has risen to 31 and the number of soldiers has fallen to 525.

Azerbaijan does not reveal how many have fallen on its side.

Armenian Prime Minister Nicholas Pashinyan has said that the ceasefire reached through Russia came into force on Saturday and was immediately violated and has not been maintained.

Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov has called on both sides to observe a ceasefire.

There have been hostile relations between Azerbaijan and Armenia since the 1990s, when there was a war over Nagorno-Karabakh, a predominantly Armenian population.

Nagorno-Karabakh, which was part of the Azerbaijani SSR during the Soviet era, has been a “de facto” independent Armenian republic since the early 1990s. Although Azerbaijan has not controlled Nagorno-Karabakh since the collapse of the USSR, it considers the Armenian region to be its territory. Nagorno-Karabakh is also considered by the international community to be part of Azerbaijan, and no country has recognized the region as an independent state.

Nagorno-Karabakh declared independence in 1991. Its secession from Azerbaijan contributed to the outbreak of war between Azerbaijan and Armenia. About 35,000 people lost their lives in the war, and more than a million people in both countries were forced to flee their homes.