Armenian News - NEWS.am presents the daily digest of top news as of 28.04.22:

  • Azerbaijani pro-government news agencies have disseminated reports entitled "Easter Celebrated in Hadrut" and posted new photos from the Armenian Church of the Surb Harutyun (Holy Resurrection) in the city of Hadrut, Artsakh (Nagorno-Karabakh), war.karabakhrecords.info reported.

Examination of these photographs clearly shows that its cross was removed from the church, and its Armenian inscription was erased.

All this is a result of the policy planned by Azerbaijan, which is evidenced by the statements of its high-ranking officials.

Before the Artsakh war in the fall of 2020, the Surb Harutyun was a functioning church, it did not suffer damages during the war, and its desecration was consistently carried out after the war.

  • Armenia is lifting some COVID-19 requirements.

The requirement to submit a negative PCR test result or a proof of coronavirus vaccination every seven days at work has been lifted in Armenia, Minister of Health Anahit Avanesyan said at Thursday’s Cabinet meeting of the Armenian government.

She noted that the requirement to submit a rapid PCR test and a proof of coronavirus vaccination when entering Armenia by land or air also will be lifted as of Sunday.

According to minister Avanesyan, the easing of these restrictions is due to the small number of COVID-19 cases that have been registered in Armenia during the last 14 days.

"The cases of deaths from the coronavirus have also decreased in the last month," the health minister added, thanking the medical staff of Armenia for their work in this regard.

  • Armenian opposition continues its resistance march from Armenian towns to Yerevan.

The first two groups marched from Ijevan city of Tavush Province on Monday, and another group—from Tigranashen (Kyarki) village of Ararat Province on Tuesday.

Today the third and fourth group started their marches from the Aparan city of Aragatsotn Province and from Armavir Province—from the Sardarapat Memorial.

And another group will start marching to Yerevan from the Sardarapat Memorial Thursday.

In the meantime, the opposition young people held an informational rally at a number of Yerevan higher educational institutions, raising a flag of Karabakh on Thursday.

They also staged a protest action with colored smoke near Yerevan State Medical University chanting "Student, get up," "Karabakh," and "Nikol is a traitor".

The protesters blocked Abovyan Street, after which the police began subjecting some of the activists to arrest and unblocked the road. The rest of the protesters said they were going to express their support for their companions.

  • Antonio Guterres, the United Nations secretary-general, has called for accountability after touring devastated areas near Ukraine’s capital, Kyiv, where Russia has been accused of committing war crimes.

The visit on Thursday, Guterres first to Ukraine since Russia’s military operation started in late February, comes two days after he met Russian President Vladimir Putin in Moscow, where he stressed the need for so-called “humanitarian corridors”, particularly out of the besieged southeastern city of Mariupol.

  • Western nations’ intervention in Ukraine will be met with a “lightning-quick” military response, Russian President Vladimir Putin warned.

The bellicose threat from Putin came as Russia claimed on Wednesday to have carried out a missile strike in southern Ukraine that destroyed a “large batch” of Western-supplied weapons.

Countries aiding Ukraine “that get it into their heads to meddle in ongoing events from the side and create unacceptable strategic threats for Russia, they must know that our response to counterpunches will be lightning-quick”, said the Russian leader.

“We have all the tools for this that no one else can boast of having,” Putin told lawmakers in St Petersburg, implicitly referring to Moscow’s ballistic missiles and nuclear arsenal