Armenian PM Nikol Pashinyan described today’s Azerbaijani artillery and mortar attack near the village of Sotk as an attempt by Baku to scuttle the scheduled May 14 meeting in Brussels between him and Azerbaijani President Ilham Aliyev.

"Azerbaijan's actions are provocative and aim, among others, to nullify the progress that was recorded during the negotiations that took place in Washington on May 1-4. Today's provocation also aims to disrupt the negotiations scheduled for Sunday in Brussels in a trilateral format, and in Chisinau on June 1 in a five-party format. Experience shows that Azerbaijan needs the negotiation process only to get an excuse for escalation and war, and escalations are used exclusively to nullify any progress made in the negotiations. This is happening now. Yesterday's messages of the Ministry of Defense of Azerbaijan about the violation of the ceasefire regime by our army are fictitious," Pashinyan said at a government cabinet session.

Pashinyan labelled Baku’s claim that Armenian troops were the first to fire as “disinformation” designed to divert international attention from Baku’s illegal installation of a checkpoint along the Lachin Corridor and the roadway’s continued closure.

Pashinyan said he wasn’t optimistic that a peace deal would be reached at Brussels.

“Unfortunately, such a possibility is very small, because the draft of the bilateral agreement on the establishment of peace and interstate relations is still very preliminary, and it is too early to talk about signing it. On the other hand, we have a task to develop that document as quickly as possible and prepare it for signing," said Pashinyan.

Pashinyan emphasized that with today's actions, Azerbaijan is questioning the fundamental agreements reached during this period, which were recorded in 2022. October 6 in Prague, October 31 in Sochi.