MOSCOW—Armenia and Azerbaijan accused each other of intense shelling on Sunday, denting hopes that a Russia-brokered cease-fire announced the previous day will hold following two weeks of fierce clashes over the disputed enclave of Nagorno-Karabakh.
Azerbaijan said that overnight shelling by Armenian forces on the city of Ganja had left several people dead and dozens injured. Armenia said that it was abiding by the truce and, in turn, accused Azerbaijan of attacking civilian areas.
The cease-fire, reached early Saturday after talks in Moscow, was intended to provide space to exchange prisoners and recover the dead. The negotiations represented the first high-level contact between Yerevan and Baku since fighting over the mountainous enclave—roughly the size of Delaware—erupted on Sept. 27, killing hundreds of people and displacing thousands.
Controlled by ethnic Armenians but internationally recognized as a part of Azerbaijan, Nagorno-Karabakh has been a flashpoint between the two countries since the years following the collapse of the Soviet Union. A six-year war that ended in a 1994 cease-fire claimed some 30,000 lives. The heavily militarized region has seen on-again, off-again skirmishes since.
Each side has blamed the other for triggering the current outbreak of hostilities. Armenia said that 429 of its soldiers had been killed in the fighting so far, while Azerbaijan hasn’t disclosed how many of its troops have been killed. Baku said that 41 Azeri civilians have been killed and 205 have been injured.
On Sunday, Azerbaijan said that Armenia attacked a residential area in Ganja, its second-largest city, in the early morning. The Azeri prosecutor general’s office said nine people had been killed and 34 injured in the attack.
Authorities in Nagorno-Karabakh called the report “an absolute lie” and accused Azerbaijan of continuing to attack populated areas, including Stepanakert, the region’s capital. Armenian officials said the enclave’s forces could step up their response.
“If Azerbaijan continues to violate the cease-fire and launch offensive operations, [Nagorno-Karabakh’s army] response will be disproportionately tough,” Armenian Defense Ministry spokesperson Shushan Stepanyan wrote on Facebook.
Azerbaijan on Saturday said that the truce was temporary and reiterated it won’t renege on its goal to retake control of Nagorno-Karabakh. “Now we have reached a political settlement that will ensure that we reach the end and get what rightfully belongs to us,” Azerbaijan President Ilham Aliyev told Russian media outlet RBC.
The latest bout in the decadeslong conflict has stoked fears of a full-blown war embroiling regional powers Russia and Turkey and destabilizing an area that serves as an important energy corridor for global markets.
For Russia, which has close ties with both Armenia and Azerbaijan, the conflict comes as a series of crises in its sphere of influence are upending the Kremlin’s plans for deeper economic and defense ties with the former Soviet republics.
A successful cease-fire would amount to a diplomatic feat and help solidify Moscow’s role as a mediator in the region. The truce announced Saturday followed phone calls between Russian President Vladimir Putin and the Armenian and Azeri leaders, after which the Kremlin leader called for halting the hostilities on humanitarian grounds.
Russia, along with the U.S. and France, is leading the mediation as part of the Organization for Security and Cooperation in Europe’s Minsk Group.
During the current flare-up in fighting, Turkey also intervened, throwing its support behind Azerbaijan, with which it shares ethnic and cultural ties. Turkey is already involved in two proxy conflicts with Russia—in Libya, where it is supporting the internationally recognized government against rebels backed by Russia, Egypt and the United Arab Emirates, and in Syria, where Moscow is a staunch ally of President Bashar al-Assad.
Write to Georgi Kantchev at georgi.kantchev@wsj.com
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