Azerbaijan on Tuesday cut off the gas supply to Artsakh a day after it blockaded the Lachin Corridor—the only road connecting Artsakh to Armenia—in an effort to strangle the population of Artsakh.

“Stopping the supply of blue fuel under such weather conditions is a humanitarian and economic terrorism that Azerbaijan is consistently carrying out against the civilians of Artsakh,” said ArtsakhInfo, the authorities’ official press service.

“In conjunction with this [gas cutoff], the people of Artsakh have been under a complete blockade for [over] 32 hours. If this is not a crime, what is it?” Artsakh’s Human Rights Defender Gegham Stepanyan wrote on Twitter on Tuesday.

Artsakh’s State Minister Ruben Vardanyan announced that all local schools and colleges using natural gas for heating purposes will be closed temporarily on Wednesday.

“I want to ask you to economize because we don’t know how long this situation will last,” Vardanyan said in an appeal to Artsakh in a Facebook post. “We are doing everything to get the whole world to know about this and to see the true face of Azerbaijan.”

“It’s going to be tough but we will manage and win,”Vardanyan said.

Azerbaijan, once before, cut off Artsakh’s gas supply in March, when it claimed there was an explosion on the gas pipeline supplying natural gas from Armenia. At the time, Artsakh’s officials accused Azerbaijan of attempting to force Armenians out of Artsakh.

A week after, however, Azerbaijani forces invaded the village of Parukh in Artsakh’s Askeran region and advanced their forces onto a strategic hill that overlooks most of Askeran, as well as the capital Stepanakert.