YEREVAN. – The Republic of Armenia Ministry of Defense (RA MOD) has issued a statement.

In the announcement, the MOD stressed that, during the ceasefire violation, Azerbaijan’s use of artillery on the Line of Contact with the Nagorno-Karabakh Republic (NKR) creates a new situation, which is yet another step towards resuming large-scale military actions.

“The RA Armed Forces’ restrained demeanor until now, [and] the reaction by the OSCE MG [i.e. Minsk Group] co-chairs and international organization, does not affect the adversary in any way in maintaining the ceasefire.

“The RA Ministry of Defense states that the adversary’s consistent aggravation of the situation, [and] which regularly leads to human casualties, as well as the unaddressed criticism and concerns by the international community are unacceptable.

“So, the RA Armed Forces will from now on use equivalent means of artillery and missile destruction to silence the adversary, prevent its [military] actions, and thereby to assist in the [Nagorno-Karabakh] peace process,” the statement specifically reads. 

Press service of the NKR Defense Army reported earlier that the Azerbaijani Armed Forces shelled at one of the northeastern protection areas of the NKR Defense Army unit on Friday at about 5:30pm.

Consequently, NKR Defense Army soldiers Norayr Khachatryan (born in 1995), Robert Mkrtchyan (born in 1995), Harut Hakobyan (born in 1997), and Karen Shahinyan (born in 1997) died from shrapnel wounds. There are wounded, too.

During the shelling, however, the adversary used 122mm artillery for the first time, thereby striking not the NKR military position-holding forces at the frontline, but rather the military subdivisions at the rear of these forces.