Karabakh’s Defense Army said the conscript identified as Khachatur Khachatrian was hospitalized in serious condition after coming under Azerbaijani gunfire in the disputed territory’s “eastern border zone.”
The army said that it immediately alerted Russian peace keepers stationed in Karabakh about the incident.
“The situation at that section of the line of contact is stable at the moment,” it added in a statement.
According to the Karabakh authorities, the soldier was wounded less than an hour after Azerbaijani forces fired on farmers who cultivated land outside a village in eastern Karabakh close to the line of contact.
A statement released by the local prosecutor’s office said a tractor used by them was hit by the gunshots before Russian troops intervened to rescue the farmers.
The Azerbaijani government did not immediately comment on the incidents.
The authorities in Stepanakert have reported several such incidents in recent months. In October, a Karabakh farmer was shot dead while working in his orchard outside the town of Martakert. The Russian Defense Ministry confirmed afterwards that he was killed “as a result of gunfire from the Azerbaijani side.”
Azerbaijani army units are also accused of regularly opening small arms fire at Karabakh villages close to the town of Shushi (Shusha) occupied by them during the 2020 war. A private house in one of those villages, Karmir Shuka, was damaged by Azerbaijani gunfire last week.
Karabakh officials say that such shootings are aimed at intimidating the territory’s ethnic Armenian population. Baku denies that.