Armenian News - NEWS.am presents the daily digest of top news as of 25.03.22:

  • Tensions are rising again in Nagorno-Karabakh [Artsakh] as Azerbaijani forces crossed Thursday noon the line of contact set after a conflict in 2020.

And on Thursday night, there were provocations from the Azerbaijani side.

Azerbaijan took control of the village of Parukh in the Askeran region and nearby positions, and then attempted to advance along the eastern boundary of Artsakh.

And since Friday afternoon, the units of the Azerbaijani armed forces continued their gross violations of the ceasefire in Nagorno-Karabakh and, in addition to firearms, were using combat UAVs, including the Bayraktar TB2s.

Five Armenian soldiers have been wounded and two have been killed in the clashes and five Azerbaijani soldiers have been killed as well.

As of Friday noon, the Artsakh Info Center noted that the Russian peacekeeping force deployed in Artsakh managed only to stop the advance of the Azerbaijani armed forces in the Parukh community of Askeran region at this stage.

The Artsakh authorities, however, hope that due to the decisive efforts of the Russian side, the Azerbaijani troops will return to their starting positions, and the civilian population of Artsakh will be able to return to their homes.

Some experts noted that Azerbaijan is aimed to reach Karaglukh as it is the strategically vital object for them. However, the security guarantees given to the civilian population in Artsakh will be in serious doubt.

  • Artsakh MFA has issued a statement noting that, Azerbaijan's geopolitical goals are obvious: to intimidate the people of Artsakh, to strike at the Russian peacekeeping mission, to make the South Caucasus a platform of pan-Turkism and extremism for the implementation of far-fetching programs in the future.

Armenian MFA, in turn, said that Azerbaijan continues its infiltration into the area of responsibility of the peacekeeping contingent of the Russian Federation in Parukh village of Askeran region of Nagorno-Karabakh.

And the US is deeply concerned about the natural gas disruptions and Azerbaijan’s troop movements in Nagorno-Karabakh (Artsakh), the Bureau of European and Eurasian Affairs of the US Department of State tweeted.

“Armenia and Azerbaijan need to use direct communications channels to immediately deescalate,” it added.

However, Chairman of the Permanent Parliamentary Commission on Foreign Relations Eduard Aghajanyan, noted that “if, hypothetically, we consider the possibility of holding talks in a bilateral format, this will definitely lead the parties to a dead end.

“After all, Baku has repeatedly stated that it considers the conflict resolved, and that there is practically no need for negotiations. The Armenian side claims the opposite,” Aghajanyan explained.

Russian Defense Minister and Army General Sergey Shoigu has also already discussed the situation in Artsakh with his Armenian counterpart Suren Papikyan.

On Friday, Armenian Foreign Minister Ararat Mirzoyan received the Personal Representative of the OSCE Chairman-in-Office, Ambassador Andrzej Kasprzyk.

The sides also highlighted the need for the return of Azerbaijani units to their original positions as of March 23.

  • Ukraine's Defense Ministry said Russian forces have managed to partially create a land corridor to Crimea from part of Ukraine's Donetsk region.

"The enemy was partially successful in creating a land corridor between the temporarily occupied Autonomous Republic of Crimea and part of Donetsk region," it said in an online post.

The head of the UN human rights team in Ukraine says monitors are receiving increasing information pointing to mass graves in the encircled city of Mariupol, including one that appeared to hold 200 bodies.

"We have got increasing information on mass graves that are there," Matilda Bogner said, saying some of the evidence came from satellite images.

Speaking via video link from Ukraine, Ms Bogner said that civilian deaths in Ukraine exceeded 1,035.

  • The UN's refugee agency said more than 3.7 million Ukrainians have now left the country since Russia began its invasion on February 24.

To date 2.2 million Ukrainians have traveled to Poland, while more than 570,000 have fled to Romania.

Another 330,000 people have arrived in Moldova, and 263,000 have sought refuge in Slovakia.

In the meantime, more than half a million Ukrainians have fled to Romania since Russia's operation began.

After arriving at the Isaccea-Orlivka border crossing in Romania, Ukrainians wait in tents before boarding buses to their next destination.

  • Finland's national railway operator will suspend services between Helsinki and St Petersburg in Russia on Monday, closing one of the last public transport routes to the European Union for Russians.

Referring to the sanctions imposed against Russia, Topi Simola, head of the passenger transportation department of the state-owned VR company, said that the people who wanted to leave Russia had enough time to leave.

The international community continues to punish Russia over its military operation in Ukraine.

The United States on Thursday announced a fresh wave of sanctions against Russian lawmakers, oligarchs and defense companies in response to the invasion of Ukraine, the White House said.

The measures, which involve freezing U.S.-held assets, single out 328 members of Russia's lower house State Duma, and 48 defense companies "that fuel (President Vladimir) Putin's war machine," according to a statement released as U.S. President Joe Biden attended summits in Brussels focused on the war.