Defense Ministry reports relative calm in Armenian-Azerbaijani border zone

The situation has been relatively calm in the north-eastern section of the Armenian-Azerbaijani border zone since 11:15pm local time, the Defense Ministry's spokesperson reported on Wednesday morning.

"No artillery equipment was used throughout the night," Shushan Stepanyan said on Facebook.

She added that the subdivisions of the Armenian Armed Forces shot down an Azerbaijani drone which crushed into fragments in an area lying between military positions.

Armenia has reported four losses in the wake of the escalations in the past days.

Azerbaijan provoked tensions in the border zone on Sunday afternoon.  In an official statement, the Ministry reported an infiltration attempt by several Azerbaijani servicemen who wanted to cross into Armenia in a minivan. After a warning by the Armenian side, they returned to the starting positions, leaving the vehicle on Armenia's territory.

The adversary repeated the border transgression attempt about an hour later, opening fire in the same direction, but was subsequently suppressed and pushed back with losses. Armenia reported no casualties at the time.

Azerbaijan continued firing mortars against Armenian outposts also on Monday afternoon. The situation calmed down later during the day. In a Facebook post on Tuesday morning, Stepanyan reported a relative calm in the border zone. She later published a video featuring the Armenian Armed Forces' retaliatory operation of neutralizing an Azerbaijani tank and Azerbaijani military outposts.  

The Armenian servicemen killed in the cross-border skirmishes were Major Garush V. Hambardzumyan, Captain Sos P. Elbakyan, Sergeant Smbat G. Gabrielyan and Junior Sergeant Grisha V. Matevosyan.