YEREVAN, APRIL 5, ARMENPRESS. YEREVAN, APRIL 5, ARMENPRESS. President of Armenia Serzh Sargsyan attended on April 5 the funeral of scout-machine gunner, contractual soldier Sasun Mkrtchyan, who was killed during the combat operations on Karabakh-Azerbaijan contact line. The funeral was held at Yerablur Military Pantheon.  “Our thoughts are with the soldiers and officers standing on our border. Our souls ache for every case of immortality, but we are encouraged by the acts of our heroes, we become more confident. Today we all have become one person, and that unity will feed our future generation. I have to announce that we live without mirages, we have no powerful patronages, but we have the sympathy of just people, we have everything to defend our home, our Motherland”, “Armenpress” reports the head of the state mentioning.

He also mentioned that what happens in Artsakh right now is another challenge for our people, this time initiated by Azerbaijani leadership.

Along the entire length of the contact line of Nagorno Karabakh- Azerbaijani opposing forces, on April 1 and throughout the morning of April 2, the adversary undertook large-scale offensive military actions, during which the adversary shelled with missile-artillery units not only Armenian defense positions, but also civilian settlements.

The Azerbaijani armed forces fired MM-21 (Grad) multiple rocket launcher on April 2, at 08: 30 in the direction of Martuni (NKR), killing 12 year old Vaghinak Grigoryan and wounding two other children. 4 other civilians were wounded later. On April 3 the subversive group of Azerbaijan brutally killed 3 elderly and vandalized their corpses in Talish village. 

Due to the timely and professional actions of the Nagorno Karabakh Defense Army, it was possible to take the situation under control, and make the enemy suffer considerable losses.

The Defense Army undertook counteroffensive measures and dominated the strategic position in the direction of Talish, which was earlier occupied by Azerbaijani forces.

Adversary’s losses by April 4: 29 tanks, 3 battle vehicles, 1 military/engineering hardware, 2 helicopters, 6 UAVs, 1 MM-21 artillery system, more than 300 casualties. Number of wounded has yet to be clarified.

Nagorno Karabakh losses: 7 tanks, 20 casualties, 6 of whom officers and non-commissioned officers, 72 wounded, 8 of whom officers and non-commissioned officers. 4 casualties among civilians, 1 of them a child. 5 more people who were on their way to Martakert were killed as a result of bombing the bus on April 4.