On 27 March, the Azerbaijani Defence Ministry said that "there has been no change in the positions of the Azerbaijani Army in the village of Farrukh and the surrounding heights."

"The information about the withdrawal of units of the Azerbaijani Army from those positions does not reflect the truth. Our army is in full control of the operational situation," the Azerbaijani Defence Ministry said.

The Russian Defence Ministry said on 27 March that Azerbaijani soldiers left the village of Farrukh "as a result of negotiations.” The Ministry said that "the ceasefire was violated twice by the Azerbaijani armed forces in the Askeran region (Khojaly region for Azerbaijani side)."

"As a result of the shooting, two people were injured on each side," the statement said.

"The command of the Russian peacekeeping contingent has stabilised the situation through cooperation with representatives of the conflicting parties," the Russian Defence Ministry said.

After several hours, the Azerbaijani Defence Ministry said in response that "the information about the alleged violation of the ceasefire by Azerbaijan is not true and no injuries were reported among the Azerbaijani servicemen."

Baku once again reminded Moscow that "there is no administrative territorial unit called ‘Nagorno-Karabakh’ in the territory of Azerbaijan."

Baku noted that the use of the term "Nagorno-Karabakh" in the statements of the Russian Defence Ministry on March 26 and 27 is "disrespectful to the territorial integrity of Azerbaijan."

The Azerbaijani Defence Ministry recalled that Russia and Azerbaijan "joined forces in the fight against separatist threats and their neutralisation" in paragraph 18 of the Declaration on Allied Interaction, signed by the presidents of the two countries last month.

The Defence Ministry said that there was no village called "Furukh" in the Khojaly region of Azerbaijan and said, "we hope that the name of the village will be indicated correctly in the next statements."

Russia's Defence Ministry said on 26 March that Azerbaijani armed forces had entered a zone policed by Russian peacekeepers in the Nagorno-Karabakh region, in a violation of an agreement.

Russia said it had called on Azerbaijan to pull out its troops and was "applying efforts" to move forces to their initial positions. The statement also said that Azerbaijani forces "struck four units of the Nagorno-Karabakh armed forces with Bayraktar drones."

According to the report, the Russian Defence Ministry "sent a call to the Azerbaijani side to withdraw troops."

The Azerbaijani Defence Ministry called the Russian Defence Ministry's statement "contradictory" to the essence of bilateral relations and the Declaration on Allied Interaction signed in February this year.

Stating that Azerbaijan is committed to the trilateral statement of November 10, 2020, the Azerbaijani Defence Ministry did not violate any of its provisions. Baku said that the units of the Azerbaijani Army continue the process of determining the positions and locations of deployment points, and "do not use force."

The Azerbaijani Defence Ministry said on the morning of March 26 that it "forced members of illegal Armenian armed groups to withdraw.” "In the morning of March 26, members of illegal Armenian armed groups, using foggy weather and limited visibility, tried to sabotage units of the Azerbaijani Army," the ministry said.

On March 26, from 01:00 to 03:00, a protest action was held in Khankendi/Stepanakert over the recent events in Karabakh. The Armenian side said that 3 servicemen were killed and 14 were injured in Nagorno-Karabakh.

Regional and International Reactions

The progress of Azerbaijani soldiers in Nagorno-Karabakh concerns France, which has urged them to return to areas outlined in the November 9, 2020, ceasefire agreement, according to the French Foreign Ministry.

"France expresses regret regarding the incidents in Nagorno-Karabakh, in particular armed incidents and the advancement of troops in the districts of Parukh (Farrukh in Azerbaijani) and Khramort (Pirlar). It calls upon the forces, who moved forward according to reports, to withdraw back to previous positions in accordance with the November 9, 2020, ceasefire agreement," the ministry said in a statement.

The ministry also raised worry over gas supply delays to Nagorno-Karabakh residents and urged that they be restored.

During negotiations with his Armenian and Azerbaijani colleagues, French Foreign Minister Jean-Yves Le Drian brought up the topic of Nagorno-Karabakh.

During a meeting with media representatives on March 25, US State Department Deputy Spokeswoman Jalina Porter said that the United States was closely monitoring the situation along the line of contact between Azerbaijan and Armenia after the ceasefire reached in November 2020. "The United States is deeply concerned about the actions of Azerbaijani troops," Porter said, adding that troop movements and "other escalation measures are irresponsible and unnecessarily provocative."

Porter also confirmed that a telephone conversation took place on March 24 between US Deputy Secretary of State Karen Donfried and the Foreign Ministers of Azerbaijan and Armenia. Secretary of State Donfried repeated what Blinken had said to Armenian Prime Minister Nikol Pashinyan and Azerbaijani President Ilham Aliyev on March 21 and 22. Donfried called on both sides to exercise restraint and strengthen diplomatic ties to find comprehensive solutions to all unresolved issues. "Armenia and Azerbaijan should simply use direct communication channels to immediately reduce tensions," Porter said.

Responding to Jalina Porter’s statement, the Azerbaijani Foreign Ministry said that the United States, as co-chair of the OSCE Minsk Group, "unfortunately has not taken any effective steps over the years to end Armenia's nearly 30-year military aggression against Azerbaijan.”

The ministry called the US State Department official's statement irresponsible and said it was operating in Azerbaijan's sovereign territories.

The Armenian Foreign Ministry said that recent statements by the Azerbaijani Foreign and Defence Ministries indicated that "the goal of Azerbaijan's policy of systematic violence and terrorism against Nagorno-Karabakh is the ethnic cleansing of Armenian settlements in Nagorno-Karabakh."

The ministry said the international community was obliged to take effective and purposeful steps to "prevent attempts to destabilise" the South Caucasus.

The ministry also expects the Russian peacekeeping contingent in Nagorno-Karabakh to take concrete, visible steps to resolve the situation and prevent new losses and military operations.

The de-facto Nagorno-Karabakh Security Council, led by separatist President Arayik Harutyunyan, has written a letter to Russian President Vladimir Putin, requesting that more Russian peacekeepers and special equipment be deployed to the conflict zone, citing renewed fighting and Azerbaijani provocations on the line of contact.

“However, since March 8, 2022, the Azerbaijani side has been carrying out increased humanitarian, psychological, and military aggression against Nagorno-Karabakh,” the letter states, detailing Azerbaijan's aggressive actions against the region’s civilian population, including the military invasion of the village of Parukh and adjacent territories, which are under Russian peacekeepers' control.

“As a result, we believe that the current number of peacekeeping personnel and technical means provided for by the provisions of the November 9, 2020, statement are insufficient for the full implementation of the peacekeeping mission in Nagorno-Karabakh, given Azerbaijan's growing and expanding military ambitions. We request that, in addition to curbing Azerbaijan's current aggression and returning the Azerbaijani armed forces to their original positions, you review the current number of Russian peacekeepers and the number of facilities serving them and increase the number of military personnel and military equipment as necessary,” according to the letter.

Farhad Mammadov, an Azerbaijani political scientist and expert of the Valdai International Discussion Club flagged that “the gas cut could be a political signal from the Azerbaijani leadership to force Yerevan to make concessions.”

"A memorandum signed with Iran on the new transport route was removed from Azerbaijan at least some kind of dependence on Armenia.

The snow is melting, the clouds are dissolving, and opportunities are opened for the planned destruction of the individual and military infrastructure of the enemy with high-precision weapons. The presence of the RMK cannot and will not be an obstacle, since the main goal is armed people," he added.

Hayk Mamijanyan, a deputy of the Armenian parliament and secretary of its "I Have Honour" coalition asserted that Azerbaijan was using the situation in Ukraine as "leverage" to renew its offensive, "to take advantage" of Russia's war with another neighbour.

"I really hope that the world won't be silent this time," Mamijanyan said. "The world, most of the international organisations were silent during the 44-day war, and I do hope that, despite the inefficiency of the Armenian government, international organisations, and the world will pay attention to the crimes Azerbaijan is conducting at the moment."

On 24 March, according to officials in Nagorno-Karabakh, the population of Hramort/Pirlar village of Khojaly was being evacuated. The reason for this, according to a source who introduced himself as an "Artsakh Information Center" official is the transfer of Azerbaijani forces to the village of Farrukh (Parukh in Armenian).

Eduard Sharmazanov, a spokesman for the Republican Party of Armenia and former vice-speaker, said on 24 March that the Azerbaijani army had taken full control of the village of Parukh/Farrukh.

Gas line updates

SOCAR Azerigas PU has issued a statement on the gas cut in Stepanakert/Khankendi:

“In recent days, the failure of gas distribution lines in the territory of the Karabakh economic region, which have been operating for many years without maintenance, has caused problems in gas supply.

On March 28, the supply of natural gas to Khankendi and other surrounding settlements will be restored, and tests will be carried out first. In this regard, consumers are advised to be careful when using natural gas, to strictly follow safety rules.

After the completion of the tests on March 29, the supply of natural gas in the territory of the Karabakh economic region will be fully restored.”