Truce talks on the Karabakh issue have started in Moscow with the participation of Armenian Foreign Minister Zohrab Mnatsakanyan, Azerbaijani Foreign Minister Jeyhun Bayramov and Russian Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov.

Russian President Vladimir Putin announced the meeting in Moscow late Thursday and appealed for a ceasefire on humanitarian grounds.

Late on Thursday, the Kremlin announced that following a series of calls with Armenian Prime Minister Pashinyan and Azerbaijani President Aliyev, Putin had invited their foreign ministers to Moscow and called for an end to hostilities "in order to exchange dead bodies and prisoners.

Top photo, released by Russian Foreign Ministry, shows the foreign ministers of Armenia, Azerbaijan and Russia at the talks.