World Bulletin / News Desk

An Azerbaijani soldier and two children have been injured in border clashes with Armenian forces on Wednesday, according to Azeri news agency APA.

The Azerbaijani Ministry of Defense stated that Armenian soldiers violated a ceasefire for the 99th time by opening fire on the Azeri area in the disputed Nagorno-Karabakh enclave and other provinces in Azerbaijan.

The wounded 20-year-old Ferhad Rahimov, an Azerbaijani soldier, 10-year-old Goshgar Abbasov from Aghstafa and 14-year-old Serhan Ismayilov from Tovuz are being treated in hospital and their conditions are stable, the APA said.

The Azerbaijani army in a move to shield against fire from Armenian armed forces have begun digging ditches and constructing soil barricades.

Azerbaijan also said it will shoot down any military plane that attempts to breach its national air zone, said the country's defense ministry on Wednesday.

According to a statement issued by the ministry, the Azerbaijani air zone was under the control of the country's air forces and they dismissed reports that claimed "Armenian warplanes are flying over the Azerbaijani border."

"Any flight without permission of Azerbaijan will be considered to be in violation of the country's air zone and the air forces have modern defense systems to respond to the violators," said the statement.

The tension between the two countries came to the forefront of the world's agenda in recent days after a total of 13 Azerbaijani soldiers were killed by Armenian forces that violated the twenty-year Russian-brokered truce.

The two former Soviet republics fought a six-year war over the disputed region of Nagorno-Karabakh between 1988 and 1994. In 1994 a ceasefire was agreed, which has been periodically disrupted by cross-border incidents.

The clashes over the past week have seen the highest number of casualties since the 1994 ceasefire.

In another incident, press members reached the remotest military position on the Azerbaijani border and tried to take some video footage of the Armenian soldiers over the concrete walls erected on the border.

Azerbaijani and Armenian leaders will table the issue of Nagorno-Karabakh and the fragile truce in Russian Black Sea resort of Sochi at the weekend.

Russian President Vladimir Putin will meet separately with Azerbaijan's Ilham Aliyev and Armenia's Serzh Sargsyan in a bid to resolve the tension between the two sides.