YEREVAN (AFP) - Azerbaijani troops on Friday (March 25) killed two Armenian separatist fighters in the disputed Nagorno-Karabakh region, the breakaway territory's authorities said, accusing Baku of a ceasefire violation.

In 2020, Armenia and Azerbaijan fought a war over the long-contested enclave which claimed more than 6,500 lives.

A Russian-brokered ceasefire saw Yerevan cede swathes of territory, with Russia deploying a peacekeeping contingent to the mountainous enclave.

Armenia's foreign ministry said Azerbaijani troops on Thursday moved into the village of Parukh - which is under control of Russian peacekeepers - in what they said was "a clear violation of the ceasefire agreement".

The Karabakh separatists' defence ministry said "two soldiers of the defence army were killed by the enemy forces who opened fire from firearms and combat drones". "The situation in the area remains tense," the ministry said, adding that it hoped that "the Russian peacekeeping mission will be able to resolve the issue".

Azerbaijan's foreign ministry accused Armenia of "misleading the international community" over the situation in Karabakh.

"Armenia is spreading disinformation," the ministry said, adding that Azerbaijani forces were carrying out work to "clarify" their positions on the ground.

On Thursday, Armenia warned of a "humanitarian catastrophe" in Karabakh after gas supplies to the region were cut off following repair work.

Yerevan has accused Baku of deliberately leaving Karabakh's ethnic-Armenian population without natural gas supplies.

But Azerbaijan's foreign ministry rejected the claim as "baseless", saying that severe weather conditions have caused the interruption of supplies.

Ethnic Armenian separatists in Nagorno-Karabakh broke away from Azerbaijan as the Soviet Union collapsed in 1991, and the ensuing conflict claimed around 30,000 lives.