Artsakh President Arayik Harutyunyan, responding to a statement made earlier today by Russian Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov that some 2,000 foreign mercenaries had been transported to the Karabakh conflict zone from the Middle East, announced that Armenian forces had already killed or wounded more than half of them.

Harutyunyan said that the Azerbaijani military command is using the mercenaries as shock troops, shooting them if they retreat.

The Artsakh president said Armenian troops will fight more decisively to neutralize the remaining mercenaries and will fight to the end.