Russian Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov urged to influence the situation in Azerbaijan's occupied Nagorno-Karabakh region and stop the violence in a phone conversation with the foreign ministers of Azerbaijan and Armenia, TASS reported.
On the night of April 2, all the frontier positions of Azerbaijan were subjected to heavy fire from the Armenian side, which used large-caliber weapons, mortars, grenade launchers and guns.
Sergey Lavrov spoke to the foreign ministers of Azerbaijan and Armenia and called to influence the situation for the cessation of violence.
He made the remarks against the background of the Russian president's reaction to the resumption of hostilities on the contact line in Azerbaijan's occupied Nagorno-Karabakh region, as well as steps undertaken by the Russian side to normalize the situation in contact with the co-chairs of the OSCE Minsk Group, according to the Russian foreign ministry.
The conflict between the two South Caucasus countries began in 1988 when Armenia made territorial claims against Azerbaijan. As a result of the ensuing war, in 1992 Armenian armed forces occupied 20 percent of Azerbaijan, including the Nagorno-Karabakh region and seven surrounding districts.
The two countries signed a ceasefire agreement in 1994. The co-chairs of the OSCE Minsk Group, Russia, France and the US are currently holding peace negotiations.
Armenia has not yet implemented the UN Security Council's four resolutions on withdrawal of its armed forces from the Nagorno-Karabakh and the surrounding districts.