Despite international calls to stop the spiral of violence, in the deadliest border confrontations since 2020, clashes between Armenia and Azerbaijan renewed after a day, in which at least 49 Armenian soldiers and 50 Azerbaijanis were killed in yesterday's clashes, and each other was held responsible for renewed fighting, prompting Russian President

Vladimir Putin to call for calm.

Armenia's Ministry of Defence accused Azerbaijan, which receives military and political support from Turkey, of firing artillery and mortar fire and using small arms in a new attack.

"The situation on the Armenian-Azerbaijani border remains tense", she added, reaffirming Armenia's position that it was Azerbaijan that had assaulted its sovereign territory

Azerbaijan, in turn, accused Armenia, which is militarily allied with Russia, of firing mortar and artillery shells at its military units.

Russia announced that it had negotiated a ceasefire, which should have been in place since yesterday morning, to put an end to last night's deadly clashes between Azerbaijan and Armenia.

In a statement, the Russian Ministry of Foreign Affairs said, "We expect that the agreement reached, following Russian mediation of a ceasefire beginning at 9 a.m. Moscow time (06,00 TG), will be respected." The Ministry expressed "grave concern about the severe deterioration of the situation".

Since the second war between Armenia and Azerbaijan over the disputed enclave of Nagorny Karabagh ended in autumn 2020, there have been repeated border clashes between the two countries. A week ago, Armenia accused Azerbaijan of killing one of its soldiers in an exchange of fire on the two countries' borders.

Such violence threatens to reignite the conflict in the Nagorny Karabakh region, despite the presence of Russian forces charged with overseeing the ceasefire in force between Armenia and Azerbaijan since the end of their second war.

After a first war, which resulted in 30 deaths in the early 1990s, there were confrontations between the two neighbouring countries in autumn 2020 over Nagorny Karabagh, the mountainous region that separated from Azerbaijan with Yerevan's support. The latest war killed some 6,500 people and ended with a Russian-brokered truce.

The two States, mediated by the European Union, are negotiating a peace treaty.