"Together with employees of the International Committee of the Red Cross, we continue the exchange of the bodies of those killed between the Armenian and Azerbaijani sides, as well as the search for missing persons," Dmitry Perepelkin, a deputy chief of the Russian peacekeeping contingent’s reconciliation center, told reporters at a briefing on Thursday.

"To make this work more effective, the number of search groups has been increased from three to five," Perepelkin stressed, adding the hotline for collecting data about the missing persons had received over 490 telephone calls.

In Perepelkin's words, Russian combat engineers have defused over 6,000 explosive objects and cleared about 200 hectares of territory in Nagorno-Karabakh, 

"Russian combat engineers of the Center for Humanitarian Demining have cleared 195 hectares of territory and 60 kilometers of roads from unexploded mines and shells. <…> More than 6,000 explosive objects have been detected and destroyed," Perepelkin said.

According to him, 405 buildings were also checked for unexploded ordnance. The deputy head of the center also said that military doctors provided assistance to 558 local residents, including 67 children.