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“The situation along the Line of Contact between armed forces of Nagorno Karabakh and Azerbaijan continues to remain extremely tense. The frontline forces of the Defense Army continue defensive combat operations successfully, inflicting heavy losses to the adversary”, - a latest press statement from the Ministry of Defense of the Nagorno Karabakh Republic says. The press release also contains a video footage of the areas after the Azerbaijani offensive with graphic images of dead Azeri servicemen and destroyed military equipment and vehicles.


“Overall, during the entire period of armed clashes the Azerbaijani side has suffered the loss of more than 200 servicemen, as well as two tanks, two drones and two helicopters”, - the NKR MOD statement reads, adding that information about the losses of Defense Army will be provided shortly.

The OSCE Minsk Group co-Chairmen, the High Representative of the European Union for Foreign Affairs and Security Policy Federica Mogherini, German Foreign Minister and current Chairperson-in-Office of the OSCE Frank-Walter Steinmeier, President of Russia Vladimir Putin, Defense and Foreign Ministers of Russia Sergey Shoygu and Sergey Lavrov, as well as the Secretary General of CSTO Nikolay Bordyuzha – have all expressed “deep concerns” and called upon the parties to exercise restraint and honor the ceasefire regime in the recent hours.

Earlier it was reported that President Serzh Sargsyan is expected to convene a meeting of the country's National Security Council today in the evening.  The Council will discuss the growing escalation and violence along the Line of Contact following the unprecedented offensive carried out by the Azerbaijani armed forces since the night of April 2, as well as “other questions” about the situation, according to the official press release from the Office of the President.

Vladimir Hakobyan, the Press Secretary of the President of Armenia, spoke to Tert.am news portal around the midday of April 2 and confirmed that “President Serzh Sargsyan had been briefed incontinently about the escalation of the situation on the Line of Contact en route from the United States” and the Air Force One was expected to land in Yerevan “in the next hours”.

In the early morning of April 2 the official statement from Karabakh Defense Army confirmed that Vaghinak Grigoryan, 2004, killed, and two other children wounded in a shell launched from MM-21 artillery rocket system in the direction of Martuni positions. Reports confirmed the incident occurred on April 2 at about 08:30.

Early in the morning, in a special press statement the Armenian Ministry of Defense acknowledged the reports on the escalation on the Line of Contact between Nagorno Karabakh and Azerbaijani troops and called upon the co-Chairs of the OSCE Minsk Group to make “addressed intervention without delay in order to keep the situation under control and escape larger scale military actions”.

The Ministry vowed “unexpected consequences” in the absence of such measures.

The Azerbaijani news portal haqqin.az, closely affiliated with the country’s President office, has confirmed in a news report that the offensive had been initiated by the armed forces of Azerbaijan in the night of April 2. 
 

All photos are available here.