In 90 percent of the frontline, our troops were successfully resisting the attacks. But we had the most serious problem in the ninth defensive region, whose defensive positions the adversary had broken through on October 4 and reached the outskirts of Jebrail. Prime Minister Nikol Pashinyan of the Republic of Armenia (RA) stated this at Monday’s meeting of the National Assembly Inquiry Committee for Studying the Circumstances of the Hostilities Unleashed on September 27, 2020. In his remarks, Pashinyan specifically noted as follows:

The task of the army was to stop Azerbaijan's attacks, to prevent its advance because the above-described attempts to stop the war showed that until we are able to stop the Azerbaijanis, all attempts to reach a ceasefire will be fruitless. Or we have to make painful concessions. All the attempts to stop the war showed exactly this, and that was the reason why on October 26, 2020, I talked about the painful compromises on the live broadcast of my Facebook page.

But as much as I understood the potential need for painful compromises, Shushi [city of Artsakh (Nagorno-Karabakh)] and the deployment of [Russian] peacekeepers in Meghri [city of Armenia] was a “red line” for me. On the other hand, as long as Shushi was standing, the struggle had a very specific goal and motivation.

On the other hand, it was obvious from the negotiations that the next goal of Azerbaijan is Shushi because by taking Shushi, the Azerbaijanis would block the Lachin road, get the opportunity to attack [Artsakh capital] Stepanakert (…), as well as the Haterk-Sotk section.