Saturday 18 / April / 2026
Azerbaijan and Armenia both accused the other side of violating a Russian-mediated cease-fire that came into force at noon local time on Saturday (08:00 UCT).
"Ignoring the ceasefire announced for humanitarian purposes effective as of October 10, 12:00, the Azerbaijani units launched an assault on an area called "Karakhambeyli" at 12:05. Units of the Artsakh Defense Army take appropriate measures to halt the enemy attack," Armenian defense ministry press spokeswoman Shushan Stepanyan wrote on Twitter.
The Azerbaijani defense ministry issued a statement accusing Armenia of breaking the cease-fire.
"Armenia is blatantly violating the ceasefire regime," the statement said, claiming there had been attacks in two directions on the frontline.
The cease-fire was agreed after 10 hours of talks sponsored by Russian Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov.
Hundreds displaced and injured
Since September 27, more than 400 people have been killed in fighting over the contested region. Nagorno-Karabakh is officially part of Azerbaijan, but has been under control of ethnic Armenian forces backed by Armenia since the end of a separatist war in 1994.
Armenian Foreign Minister Zohrab Mnatsakanyan and his Azerbaijani counterpart, Jeyhun Bayramov, agreed to a cease-fire "on humanitarian grounds for exchanging POWs and other detained persons and dead bodies," according to a statement read out by Lavrov.
Armenia and Azerbaijan also agreed to "start substantive talks aimed at the quickly reaching a peaceful solution," Lavrov added.
International ramifications
The cease-fire deal was set to put a hold on a conflict that has threatened to spin out of control, potentially pitting Turkey, a close ally of Azerbaijan, against Russia, which has a defense pact with Armenia.
The European Union, Russia and the United States have all called for the fighting to stop and for peace talks to be mediated by representatives from France, Russia and the United States, known as the Minsk Group.
The group was created in 1992 by the Organization for Security and Cooperation in Europe (OSCE) to encourage a peaceful, negotiated resolution to the conflict over Nagorno-Karabakh amid a full-blown war that killed at least 30,000 people and ended without a peace treaty in 1994.
Saturday's statement indicated that negotiations moving forward would be mediated by the Minsk Group.
