On the night of September 13, 2022, at 01:00 a.m, the spokesperson for the Armenian Ministry of Defense reported that at 00:05, the units of the Azerbaijani Armed Forces began to fire intensively at the Armenian positions in the direction of Goris, Sotk and Jermuk from artillery and large-caliber firearms, and that the adversary was using UAVs as well.
Fighting and positional battles continued throughout the night. At the same time, information started circulating that a ceasefire was established with the mediation of Russia and that the ceasefire was to start at 02:30a.m. This information spread quite actively on social networks, particularly on Facebook. However, in reality, no official statement was made about reaching a cease-fire with the mediation of Russia at night.
The study of the messages showed that the source of this information is the Telegram channel that belongs to blogger Mika Badalyan. The same information was also distributed by the websites operativ.am and a1news.am.
The mentioned information was also shared by the journalist Nairi Khokhikyan, while mamul.am copied and published the information citing Kokhikyans’s post.
Only today, 11:05 a.m. the Russian Foreign Ministry issued a statement that an agreement was reached to establish a ceasefire starting from 09:00 a.m. today. “We expect that the agreement reached with the mediation of Russia on the cease-fire from 09:00 a.m. Moscow time will be fully implemented,” particularly noted the Russian Foreign Ministry.
Despite the fact that according to the statement, an agreement on a ceasefire was reached with the mediation of Russia, Prime Minister Pashinyan stated in his speech at the National Assembly today that the fighting in both directions has not stopped yet.
“In fact, as of now [11:30 am], the intensity of combat operations has decreased, but Azerbaijan’s attacks in one or two directions continue,” the Prime Minister mentioned in his speech.
In fact, the cease-fire agreement reached with the mediation of Russia was not maintained.
Thus, the information spread during the night that a ceasefire agreement was reached at 02:30 with the mediation of Russia is wrong. There was a ceasefire agreement with the mediation of the Russian Federation as of 09:00a.m., which, however, was not maintained.
Narek Martirosyan