Media: Moscow urged Armenia to launch Iskander missiles on Azerbaijan during Nagorno-Karabakh war
Armenia launched at least one Iskander ballistic missile on Azerbaijani capital during the last armed clash in Nagorno-Karabakh, reported the publication Middle East Eye with a reference to a high-ranking official. The newspaper’s source said that the missile was fired in November last year, after a month and a half of heavy fighting. The source claims that the initiative to launch a missile at Baku came from Moscow. The Russians allegedly helped to carry out the launch, in an attempt to force Azerbaijan to stop the offensive and declare a ceasefire.
"An Iskander ballistic missile was launched by Yerevan directly into the capital days before the ceasefire. It was concerning for Azerbaijani officials. But a missile defence system operated by the Azerbaijani military, an Israeli-made Barak-8, shot it down," the newspaper quoted an anonymous source as saying. The source also suggested that the possible use of Iskander by the Armenian army could have had a decisive impact on Baku's ceasefire decision.
According to the report, the missile was destroyed by the Israeli missile defense system Barak-8 which is in the arsenal of the Azerbaijani army.
In July 2017, Baku announced that Azerbaijan has excellent weapons to counter Iskander missiles, and these weapons were not purchased in Russia.
Earlier, Armenian Prime Minister Nikol Pashinyan said that Russian missiles worked only 10% of the time.
Pashinyan‘s statement caused outrage among Armenian military and sparked unrest in Yerevan. Later, Pashinyan's representatives said that the Armenian prime minister's words about Russian missiles were distorted and taken out of context.