YEREVAN. – We have nothing to add to the announcement made yesterday. Nzhdeh Hovsepyan, spokesman for Deputy Prime Minister Tigran Avinyan of Armenia, on Friday told this to Armenian News-NEWS.am, referring to the statement Rustam Muradov—commander of the Russian peacekeeping contingent that is stationed in the Nagorno-Karabakh (Artsakh) conflict zone to monitor the ceasefire there—that a return of captives was not planned Thursday and that disseminating such reports was a provocation and aimed at misleading the population.

The Prime Minister's spokesperson, Mane Gevorgyan, on Thursday had confirmed to a media outlet that Armenian POWs were returning from Azerbaijan on board a plane, but no number was mentioned.

Later it became clear that the said plane had arrived in Yerevan, but without any POWs.

And the office of Deputy Prime Minister Tigran Avinyan had stated that the return of these captives was being postponed again because Azerbaijan was not fulfilling point 8 of the November 9, 2020 trilateral statement, which is a gross violation of the post-war humanitarian process.