The Joint Defense Center of the pro-Russian Donetsk forces announced that the Ukrainian army bombed the city of Donetsk three times after the truce announced yesterday by Russian President Vladimir Putin entered into force, while Ukraine said that the Russian forces bombed a fire station in Kherson and are targeting the city of Kramatorsk in the east of the country. .
The center said that the Ukrainian heavy artillery bombardment targeted the Petrovski and Kirovskiy neighborhoods before the start of the truce.
A spokesman for the Russian Ministry of Defense, Igor Konashenkov, said in statements that the Russian army began at 12:00 local time today to implement the ceasefire in Ukraine.
"However, despite this, the Kyiv administration continues to bomb residential areas and Russian soldiers with cannons," he added, noting that his country's forces responded in kind to the sources of Ukrainian fire.
On the other hand, the deputy head of the Ukrainian presidential administration, Kyrilo Tymoshenko, announced that the Russian army bombed the city of Kramatorsk twice in eastern Ukraine today, Friday, after the entry into force of the ceasefire declared by Moscow.
He added that a private residential building was bombed, noting that according to preliminary information, there were no casualties.
The Ukrainian General Staff also said that Russian forces targeted cities and towns in the Kobyansk axis in Kharkiv province, which resulted in injuries and fires.
And south in Kherson, the Ukrainian military administration said that Russian bombing left dead and injured minutes before the truce announced by Russia entered into force.
The Ukrainian military stated that Russian forces bombed a fire station and a nearby house.
On Thursday, Russian President Vladimir Putin announced a truce with the aim of what he said was to give people a chance to celebrate Christmas and attend prayers.
Putin instructed his defense minister, Sergei Shoigu, to cease fire in Ukraine, starting at 12:00 noon today, Friday, for a period of 36 hours.
For its part, Ukraine rejected the Russian armistice, and Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky accused the Russian leadership of trying to use Christmas as a cover to stop the advance of Ukrainian forces east of the country.
Zelensky said that the withdrawal of the Russian army from the entire Ukrainian territory is the only way to stop the war and stop the loss of lives.
In turn, the advisor to the Ukrainian presidency, Mikhailo Podolyak, described the Russian truce as hypocritical, accusing Moscow of seeking to gain time
On military operations, Budlyak said that his country's forces will work to disarm Russia using the allies' long-range missiles, and that the decisions of Washington, Berlin and Paris regarding handing over more qualitative weapons to his country will strengthen its defenses.
As for Andrei Yermak, director of the Ukrainian President's Office, he said that the current winter and next spring will constitute an important point for the progress of the Ukrainian forces on the ground.
He added, in a tweet on Twitter, that major events await the Ukrainians, the end of which will be the restoration of all Ukrainian lands, as he put it.
Russian military shipments to Belarus
In a related context, the Belarusian Ministry of Defense announced the arrival of a train carrying Russian soldiers and equipment to Belarus, and said that the joint Russian-Belarusian forces are fully prepared to defend the borders of what it called the "Union State".
For its part, the Belarusian Security Council announced that the joint Russian-Belarusian forces gathering has defensive purposes only and aims to protect the western borders of what it called the Union State.
The Interfax agency said that Belarusian President Alexander Lukashenko inspected the joint Russian-Belarusian forces at a military base in the west of the country.
The agency quoted Belarusian sources as saying that Lukashenko visited this morning the Aboz-Lisnovsky base in Brest Province, bordering Ukraine and Poland.
Joint Russian-Belarusian forces are deployed at the base, and they have been conducting joint maneuvers and patrols for more than two months.