Yerevan /Mediamax/. Azerbaijani President Ilham Aliyev has said that the Russian Defense Ministry says it did not record the launch of Iskander-M missiles during the war in Artsakh.

In an interview with AzTV on April 20, Aliyev said that the Russian Defense Ministry’s statement did not explain how Iskander-M missiles fell into the hands of Armenia.

“The main question of our inquiry was how the banned and deadly Iskander-M missiles got into the hands of Armenia. In the end, it is impossible. It could be done in two ways: either by smuggling or by violating international norms and rules, because the Armenian army can only have Iskander-E, the export version. We are waiting for this answer; the people of Azerbaijan are waiting. We have clarified many issues for ourselves. We know when and why those missiles were launched, but we must get an official response from Armenia and Russia, which fired the missiles at us,” he said.

Aliyev hopes that “this issue will be clarified, as this unpleasant situation justly causes regret and surprise among the Azerbaijani people and the leadership of Azerbaijan.”

“Russia and Azerbaijan are connected by a strategic partnership. Russian peacekeeping forces are deployed to our land - Karabakh, Khankendi and adjacent regions - with the consent of Azerbaijan. We believed that this new format of cooperation would strengthen our ties. In fact, it should strengthen them. However, the discovery of Iskander-M missiles in Shusha and the fact that we have not yet received an exhaustive answer to this question, of course, justly causes regret and surprise among the Azerbaijani people and the leadership of Azerbaijan. Hopefully, this issue will be cleared up. Relationships between strategic partners must be sincere. Azerbaijan has always been sincere with all strategic partners, Azerbaijan has always kept its word,” Aliyev added.