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The 36-hour unilateral cessation of hostilities, declared by President Vladimir Putin, came into force this Friday, January 6. However, kyiv denounces bombardments by the Moscow military in cities such as Kherson, in the south, and Kramatorsk, in the east. The Government of Volodímir Zelensky describes the truce for Orthodox Christmas as a “trap” to stop the advance of his forces against the invading troops.
An Orthodox Christmas marked by continuous bombardments and fighting, despite the declaration of a unilateral ceasefire.
On the ground little or nothing has changed. An air strike alert was registered throughout Ukraine, which accuses Russia of maintaining continuous assaults throughout the country, despite the cessation of hostilities that it declared unilaterally and came into force at noon on January 6.
The measure, which plans to extend for a total of 36 hours in the middle of the religious festival shared by the two countries, has been overshadowed by at least one bombardment against a fire station in Kherson, south of the invaded country, which leaves a figure not yet determined number of people killed and injured, kyiv notes.
“The Russians once again confirmed the fact that they cannot be trusted. There is a shelling on Kherson and there are dead and wounded. This is the second fire station to be attacked by the enemy in two days, in violation of all the principles and norms of international law,” said Serhiy Kruk, head of the State Emergency Service of Ukraine.
Kherson is an area that the Russian Army has been relentlessly bombarding since it was forced to withdraw from it when it became one of the territories recaptured by local authorities last November.
In other regions of Ukraine, shortly before Vladimir Putin’s proposed pause in fighting on Thursday, January 5, attacks on Russia’s front line of fighting also showed no sign of abating.
Kyrylo Tymoshenko, deputy head of the Ukrainian Presidency office, also denounced that dozens of Russian projectiles hit the city of Kramatorsk, in the eastern Donetsk region.
The official explained that Kremlin soldiers “attacked the city with rockets twice” this Friday morning, while Mayor Oleksandr Honcharenko warned that the city is “under fire” and urged residents to remain in shelters. About 14 houses were damaged after the rockets hit a residential building, he added.
Likewise, reporters from the AFP agency assured that they heard incoming and outgoing shelling in the city of Bakhmut, in the east.
“Using Orthodox Christmas as a cover”
Since President Putin unilaterally declared a brief cessation of fighting a day earlier, Ukraine has greeted the announcement with disbelief, calling it a “trap”.
In a speech on the eve of the measure’s entry into force, President Volodimir Zelenski assured that the Moscow government “wants to use Christmas as a cover” to stop Ukrainian advances and reposition troops and ammunition.
“Everyone knows how the Kremlin uses the pauses in the war to continue the war with new strength,” the president said.
Later, Zelenski changed his speech from Ukrainian to Russian, in an attempt to address the population of that country. “They sent all their people to be slaughtered (…) not to fight for peace,” he said.
? Volodymyr Zelenskiy last night warned that Vladimir Putin’s offer of a Christmas truce was a cover to stop Ukrainian advances and bring in more backup troops and equipment https://t.co/6XdZwhkvHb
— The Telegraph (@Telegraph) January 6, 2023
The unilateral ceasefire began after it was publicly requested by Patriarch Kirill, head of the Russian Orthodox Church.
But kyiv stressed that the religious leader has openly supported Russia’s aggression, for which Mykhailo Podolyak, one of the advisers to the Ukrainian Executive, insisted that it is a “cynical trap and an element of propaganda.”
Analysts agree that the Kremlin’s ceasefire order could be an attempt to buy some time for Russian forces to regroup before relaunching offensive operations on the eastern Ukraine battlefront.
In addition, they maintain that the measure could also be part of a broader initiative to gather support in their own country, in the midst of a conflict that leaves thousands of Russian soldiers dead, rejection and doubts in part of the population, despite the efforts of the Kremlin for vetoing access to independent information, with severe blockades to the press that is not pro-government.
Russia accuses Ukraine of facilitating the new attacks
The Russian government defends itself against the accusations and ensures that its troops have respected the ceasefire after Putin’s order.
The Ministry of Defense of that country went further and accused the Ukrainian side of shelling its military positions in the regions of Lugansk and Donetsk, in eastern Ukraine, and Zaporizhia, in the south.
These are precisely three of the four regions that Moscow irregularly annexed last September despite the fact that its troops do not occupy all of those territories and that kyiv has promised to recover.
“The Ukrainian Armed Forces fired four mortar shells at Russian positions in the direction of Lyman,” the Russian portfolio said, referring to the city that belongs to Donetsk.
Since before the cessation of hostilities came into force, the Ukrainian government made it clear that it did not intend to stop its defenses. The United States also joined this position by describing what was proposed by Moscow as a strategy to reinforce its troops.
With Reuters and local media
