This handout photograph released by the Russian Foreign Ministry shows Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov (C) as he chairs a meeting of Armenia's Foreign Minister Zohrab Mnatsakanyan (R) and Azerbaijan's Foreign Minister Jeyhun Bayramov in Moscow on O
Moscow: Azerbaijan and Armenia have agreed to a ceasefire from midnight on October 10, and plan to start "substantive" talks over Nagorno-Karabakh, Russian Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov announced on Saturday.
The breakthrough came after some 10 hours of talks in Moscow, in the early hours of Saturday morning.
Armenian Foreign Minister Zohrab Mnatsakanyan and his Azerbaijani counterpart, Jeyhun Bayramov, agreed to a ceasefire "on humanitarian grounds for exchanging POWs and other detained persons and dead bodies," according to a statement read out by Lavrov.
Armenia and Azerbaijan also agreed to "start substantive talks aimed at the quickly reaching a peaceful solution," Lavrov added.
Russias top diplomat said that the Red Cross would act as an intermediary in the humanitarian operation.
At least 300 people have been reported killed in the fighting, which broke out on September 27 and is the most serious in the territory since clashes in 2016 left dozens dead.
The EU, Russia and the United States have all called for the fighting to stop, and for peace talks to be mediated by the so-called Minsk Group, which is co-chaired by France, Russia and the US.
The group was created in 1992 by Organization for Security and Co-operation in Europe (OSCE) to encourage a peaceful, negotiated resolution to the conflict over Nagorno-Karabakh amid a full-blown war that killed at least 30,000 people and ended without a peace treaty in 1994.
Saturday's statement indicated that negotiations moving forward would be mediated by the Minsk Group.
