The skirmishes have stirred concern about the stability of a late 2020 Moscow-negotiated armistice.

Skirmishes continued around the still undefined border, now more than eight months after Azerbaijan reversed three decades of humiliation by retaking long-occupied areas.

The unrest has obviously unnerved the EU so much that the President of the EU Council, Charles Michel, scheduled an unexpected visit to the region on July 17.

Baku said Shusha, Azerbaijan's "cultural capital" and a historic mountainside city known for producing writers and scholars, and the crown jewel recovered by Azerbaijan after the years of Armenian occupation, came under attack.