YEREVAN, July 14. /TASS./ Gazprom Armenia, a subsidiary of Russia’s Gazprom, has informed on Tuesday that gas pipelines have been damaged near the border with Azerbaijan, Due to the incident, the supply of gas to three border settlements has been halted, the company’s press service stated.

"As a result of a force-majeure on July 13, ground-based gas pipelines have been damaged, which caused a halt in the supply of gas to the settlements of Nerkin Karmiraghbyur, Aygepar and partly to the settlement of Chinari in the Tavush Province," the company informed.

On July 12, the Azerbaijani Defense Ministry informed of an attempt by the Armenian Armed Forces to attack the republic’s positions in the direction of Tovuz on the border using artillery. According to the ministry, the attacks have continued during the night. Baku informed that eleven Azerbaijani troops had been killed since clashes had begun.

For its part, the Armenian Defense Ministry informed that two police officers and three military officers had been injured after an attack on the border with Azerbaijan, adding that border tensions have escalated after an attempted breach from the side of Azerbaijan.

On Monday, Russian Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov discussed the escalation of tensions of the Armenian-Azerbaijani border with his colleagues from Armenia and Azerbaijan Zohrab Mnatsakanyan and Elmar Mammadyarov, calling on both sides to establish a ceasefire.

On Tuesday, UN Secretary General Antonio Guterres has also called on both conflict sides to stop the clashes and to begin de-escalation of the conflict.

Nagorno-Karabakh, a disputed border region between Armenia and Azerbaijan, sought independence from Azerbaijan at the end of the 1980s, which resulted in a war between Azerbaijan and Armenia that claimed the lives of 25,000-30,000 people between 1988 and 1994.

Talks on the Nagorno-Karabakh settlement have been going on since 1992. Russia, the US and France are co-chairs of the Minsk Group of the Organization for Security and Cooperation in Europe (OSCE) that acts as a mediator in resolving the crisis. The group also includes Azerbaijan, Armenia, Belarus, Germany, Italy, Portugal, the Netherlands, Sweden, Finland and Turkey.