Armenia says facing ‘historic threat’ as Nagorno-Karabakh clashes intensify
- Leaders of Russia, France and US call on the warring sides to immediately agree to a ceasefire
- Azerbaijan’s president says Armenia’s withdrawal from region is sole condition to end fighting
Armenian and Azerbaijani forces were engaged in fierce clashes on Saturday as fighting over the disputed Nagorno-Karabakh region intensified, with Armenia reporting heavy losses and its leader saying it was facing a historic threat.
Armenia’s defence ministry said separatist forces had repelled a massive attack by Azerbaijan, seven days after new fighting erupted in the decades-old dispute over the ethnic-Armenian breakaway province.
Armenian-backed separatist fighters in Karabakh destroyed a “huge military grouping,” of Azerbaijan’s forces, defence ministry spokeswoman Shushan Stepanyan said, claiming to have inflicted “serious losses in manpower and military hardware”.
But Armenia also announced the deaths of 51 more separatist fighters, increasing the number of fatalities on both sides above 240 after nearly a week of fighting.
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Deadly clashes between Armenia and Azerbaijan reignite over Nagorno-Karabakh
Azerbaijan’s defence ministry said its forces had “captured new footholds” and that the Armenians had “suffered serious losses in manpower and military hardware”.
In an address to the nation on Saturday, Prime Minister Nikol Pashinyan called on Armenians to unite.