On 31 March, Azerbaijan’s Mine Action Agency (ANAMA) reported that it has found traces of two Iskander missiles that the Armenian military fired on in the Karabakh town of Shusha during the Second Karabakh War. 

In a statement, the agency says it identified the missile fragments as belonging to the Iskander mobile short-range ballistic missile system. The statement also provides coordinates where the fragments were allegedly found. The media in Azerbaijan began speculating that the two rockets were fired from the Russian base in Armenia’s Gyumri municipality. 

The Azerbaijani news Turan agency applied to ANAMA with a request to confirm the publication. However, the press service of ANAMA said that they could not say anything on this issue. When asked whether the agency denies this publication, ANAMA said that they could not give a comment. Turan assumed that these statements from the ANAMA were arranged in order not to offend the Russian Defence Ministry whose representative General Igor Konashenkov said that not a single Iskander missile was used by Armenia during the Second Karabakh war.  

On 18 November 2020, the former head of the Military Control Service of the Armenian Ministry of Defence Movses Hakobyan stated that the Armenian Armed Forces had indeed used Iskanders, but he refused to say where (Caucasus Watch reported). Afterwards, on 16 February 2021, Armenia’s former President Serzh Sargsyan accused the Pashinyan government of waiting too long to use the missiles (Caucasus Watch reported) with Sargsyan saying that Armenian forces only fired the missiles in the last days of the war, in the direction of Shusha. A week later, Armenia’s Prime Minister Nikol Pashinyan said Said that the Iskander missiles, purchased from Russia, did not explode at all or only exploded by 10% on impact (Caucasus Watch reported). He was heavily criticised by Russian parliamentarians and Armenian military establishment for that comment.