The Azerbaijani Ministry of Defense announced that units of its armed forces took control of a number of highlands, lands and secondary roads in the Lachin region, which connects Armenia with parts of Nagorno-Karabakh, and were under the control of Armenian forces.

Baku accuses Yerevan of seeking to take control of some mines in the Lachin region and using the road to transport weapons and troops.

Armenian Prime Minister Nikol Pashinyan dismissed the Azerbaijani accusations, calling them false propaganda aimed at igniting a new conflict in Karabakh.

Pashinyan warned two weeks ago of a "high probability of escalation" on the border with Azerbaijan and in the disputed Karabakh region.

"Today, there is a very high probability of an escalation along the Armenian border and in Nagorno-Karabakh (...) Azerbaijan's rhetoric is becoming more and more hostile," he said, in the context of frequent border clashes since the war between Yerevan and Baku in 2020.

Negotiations

Armenia and Azerbaijan fought a war for control of Nagorno-Karabakh at the time of the dissolution of the Soviet Union in the early 30s, which resulted in <>,<> deaths and ended in Armenia's victory.

Another conflict erupted in the fall of 2020 that lasted 44 days and killed 6500,<> people, allowed Azerbaijan to retake large swathes of territory, and Russian peacekeepers deployed after a Moscow-brokered ceasefire agreement ended the war, but tensions remain high at a time when there has been no progress in negotiations on a peace treaty.

Azerbaijan has offered representatives of the Armenian population of the Karabakh region a meeting in the capital Baku to discuss integration and infrastructure projects in the region.

"In continuation of the meeting held in the city of Khojaly on March 13 and the invitation made on March <>, it was proposed to hold a meeting in Baku of representatives of the Armenian population in the first week of next April," the Azerbaijani presidency said in a statement.

The meeting will discuss the integration of Armenians with Azerbaijan and infrastructure projects in the Azerbaijani-controlled Karabakh region, the statement said.

Azerbaijani officials met with Armenian representatives at the headquarters of Russian forces temporarily deployed in the region on March 1.