Azerbaijani armed forces continuously violated the ceasefire on the contact line with Nagorno Karabakh on the night of December 22-23.

According to the Karabakh Defense Ministry, in the reporting period Azerbaijani armed forces have fired 2000 shots from various caliber artillery weapons, 82-mm mortars, AGS-17 grenade launchers, as well as ZU-23-2 anti-aircraft autocannon.

Karabakh troops controll the situation, retaliating in case of necessity.

According to the Karabakh Defense Ministry, on the night of December 21-22 Azerbaijani armed forces have fired 900 shots from various caliber artillery weapons, 60-, 82-mm mortars, AGS-17 and AGM-9 grenade launchers, as well as TR-107 rocket launcher.

Dwelling upon the current situation on the contact line, Armenian Defense Ministry spokesman Artsrun Hovhannisyan said that escalation is usually conditioned by political motives.

“The latter might result from the Presidential meeting, or some inner political developments in Azerbaijan, also perhaps targeting the Armenian society,” he said.

According to Hovhannisyan, Azerbaijan’s usage of tanks is not as dangerous as that of artillery. “Not usually deployed on the frontline, tanks are brought to the positions specially. An even more serious escalation was the use of the D-30 howitzer. Azerbaijan has already used every possible ammunition type, with the retaliation on Armenian side not necessarily made with the same weapons,” he noted.

Commenting on the public's unwillingness to understand the reason behind casualties, Hovhannisyan said: “This is war, not ceasefire. In current state of affairs, the operational effectiveness is determined not by 1 or 2 casualties, but by disruption of the rival’s intentions."