YEREVAN. – This is an unprecedented escalation whose consequences will be very painful for the Azerbaijani side.

Armenia defense minister’s press secretary Artsrun Hovhannisyan told the abovementioned to Armenian News-NEWS.am, commenting on a Nagorno-Karabakh Republic (NKR) helicopter’s downing by Azerbaijan during a training flight.  

He noted that Azerbaijan was continuing this unprecedented escalation even when the helicopter was already downed, and they were not even permitting to approach the pilots.

“The Azerbaijani side’s accusations that, as if, the Armenian helicopters had launched an attack, are mindless, since an examination of the pieces of the helicopter’s debris will enable to confirm that it was not armed,” Hovhannisyan said.   

The NKR MOD had informed that an NKR Air Force helicopter was shot at on Wednesday at around 1:45pm, and as a result of ceasefire violation by the Azerbaijani armed forces.

The helicopter was shot during a training flight in the airspace of the eastern sector of the Karabakh-Azerbaijan border.    

The location where the helicopter was shot at is very close to the Line of Contact.

The adversary, using various-caliber artillery weapons, continues to intensively fire shots toward the scene of the incident.   

According to preliminary information, three pilots have been killed.