Saturday, Armenia Reports Renewed Fighting In Karabakh NAGORNO-KARABAKH -- A general view shows Hadrut town, which recently came under the control of Azerbaijani troops, November 25, 2020 Armenia accused Azerbaijan on Saturday of resuming “offensive operations” in Nagorno-Karabakh’s southwest one month after a Russian-brokered ceasefire that stopped the Armenian-Azerbaijani war. The Armenian Defense Ministry said the Azerbaijani army is attacking Karabakh Armenian positions near two remote villages in Karabakh’s southern Hadrut district that was mostly occupied by it during the six-week war. In a short statement, the ministry said Karabakh’s Armenia-backed army is “taking adequate measures” in response. It gave no further details. A spokeswoman for Armenian Prime Minister Nikol Pashinian said Russian peacekeeping forces deployed in Karabakh must react to the “Azerbaijani attack.” “The leadership of the peacekeepers has been fully informed about the events unfolding there since the early morning,” Mane Gevorgian wrote on Facebook. The Karabakh Defense Army said earlier in the day that three of its soldiers were wounded while thwarting an Azerbaijani attempt to attack one of its frontline positions late on Friday. It denied Azerbaijani media reports saying that Armenian forces resorted to an “armed provocation” in Hadrut that left one Azerbaijani soldier wounded. A senior Karabakh official, Davit Babayan, likewise claimed that Azerbaijani forces tried to advance at a southern section of the Karabakh “line of contact” but were repelled. According to the Sputnik news agency, the Russian Defense Ministry confirmed that there was “one instance of violation of the ceasefire regime in the Hadrut district” on Friday. But it did not comment on fresh hostilities reported in the mountainous area on Saturday. Azerbaijan did not immediately react to what were the most serious truce violations reported in the Karabakh conflict zone since the November 9 ceasefire agreement. In what may have been a related development, Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov again spoke with his Azerbaijani counterpart Jeyhun Bayramov by phone on Saturday. The Russian Foreign Ministry said they discussed the implementation of the ceasefire agreement but did not elaborate. The nearly 2,000 Russian troops were deployed in and around Karabakh under the terms of that accord. The Russian Defense Ministry reported on Saturday morning that the peacekeeping forces have fortified their observation posts with protective and surveillance equipment. Skirmish Reported In Karabakh NAGORNO-KARABAKH -- An ethnic Armenian soldier walks with Nagorno-Karabakh's flag towards a checkpoint near village of Charektar at a new border with Kalbacar district turned over to Azerbaijan, November 25, 2020. Nagorno-Karabakh’s Armenia-backed army said on Saturday that three of its soldiers were wounded while thwarting an Azerbaijani attempt to attack one of its frontline positions late on Friday. “Their life is not at risk. An investigation is underway to clarify details of the incident,” the Defense Army said in a statement. The statement denied Azerbaijani media reports saying that Armenian forces resorted to an “armed provocation” in Karabakh’s southern Hadrut district that left one Azerbaijani soldier wounded. A senior Karabakh official, Davit Babayan, likewise claimed that Azerbaijani forces tried to advance at a southern section of the Karabakh “line of contact” but were repelled. “These actions are directed at both Karabakh and Russia,” Babayan told the Armenpress news agency. “It is possible that there will be more such provocative actions in the future. But I think the response will be tough, including from [Russian] peacekeepers.” The peacekeepers did not immediately comment on what was the most serious ceasefire violation reported in the Karabakh conflict zone since a Russian-brokered agreement that stopped the six-week Armenian-Azerbaijani war on November 10. The nearly 2,000 Russian troops were deployed in and around Karabakh under the terms of that agreement. The Russian Defense Ministry reported earlier on Saturday that the peacekeeping forces have fortified their observation posts with protective and surveillance equipment. Reprinted on ANN/Armenian News with permission from RFE/RL Copyright (c) 2020 Radio Free Europe / Radio Liberty, Inc. 1201 Connecticut Ave., N.W. Washington DC 20036.