Baku hands over body of Armenian soldier killed in Armenian-Azerbaijani border fighting

The body of one Armenian soldier who died on November 16 during the fighting at the Armenian-Azerbaijani border was brought to Yerevan. In the afternoon it was reported that the former commander of the Russian peacekeeping contingent in Karabakh, Rustam Muradov, would arrive in Armenia.

He always accompanied all Armenian prisoners who returned to their homeland from Baku, therefore, prisoners of war were expected to arrive. Then it became known that this time there were no prisoners on board, but it was not assumed that Azerbaijan only handed over one body.

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The fact that the plane from Baku was already flying to Yerevan was first reported by the pro-government Azerbaijani website Caliber. The publication said that the plane with the so-called “cargo-200” en route to Yerevan was accompanied by the Deputy Commander of the Southern Military District Rustam Muradov.

According to preliminary information, he was sent to the region to hold negotiations to develop “mechanisms for preventing armed incidents between the parties on the Armenian-Azerbaijani border, outside the zone of responsibility of the Russian peacekeepers”.

The largest escalation since the end of the second Karabakh war in 2020 took place on November 16. The Armenian side reported one dead, 13 prisoners and 24 missing. The Azerbaijani side announced that seven servicemen were killed, 10 soldiers were wounded.