Moscow confirms its commitment, and Kiev accuses it of launching strikes
Mutual accusations between Russia and Ukraine of violating the "Christmas truce"
Plumes of smoke rise after an air strike on the city of Bakhmut during the ceasefire yesterday.
Reuters
Russia and Ukraine exchanged accusations of violating the unilateral ceasefire declared by Russian President Vladimir Putin on the occasion of Christmas. of attacks during the armistice.
The Russian Ministry of Defense said that despite the artillery shelling of Ukrainian forces on populated areas and on Russian positions, the Russian forces will continue to implement the declared ceasefire.
The ministry's spokesman, Igor Konashenkov, said that the Russian army responded to the Ukrainian attacks during the armistice, and the Russian armed forces destroyed all the sites from which the Ukrainian army was carrying out bombing in the regions of Donetsk, Kherson and Zaporizhia.
The artillery shelling continued, the day before yesterday, in the city of Bakhmut, which has become a center of fighting in eastern Ukraine, and in other parts of Ukraine, despite the unilateral ceasefire that Kyiv and Western powers considered a mere maneuver from Russia, and after the decision entered into force, agency correspondents spoke. AFP reported that gunfire was heard from the Russian and Ukrainian sides, but the force of the strikes was lighter compared to the previous days.
The deputy head of the Ukrainian presidential administration, Kyrilo Tymoshenko, spoke of two Russian strikes on Kramatorsk, which targeted a residential building and resulted in no casualties.
He also spoke of Russian bombing of Kherson in the south.
In the Luhansk region, the local authorities announced 14 artillery shells and three Russian attacks, while civilians stayed all day in basements, while Russian news agencies reported on the separatist authorities in eastern Ukraine talking about shelling on their positions in Donetsk, carried out by the Ukrainian army before and after the entry into force of a moratorium. fire.
Following an appeal made by the Russian Orthodox Patriarch Kirill, and a proposal made by Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan, Putin asked his army last Thursday to start implementing a cease-fire on all the contact line between the two parties in Ukraine, starting from 9:00 GMT on the sixth of January, until 21:00 on the seventh. From January, however, Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky considered that Putin's decision constituted "an argument aimed at stopping the advance of Ukrainian soldiers in Donbass, and providing equipment and ammunition."
Putin had called on the Ukrainian forces to abide by this truce so that followers of the Orthodox community, the largest sect in both Ukraine and Russia alike, would be able to attend Christmas Eve services, while US President Joe Biden said that Putin is seeking, through this truce, a "breather".
In addition, the Ukrainian president praised the United States for including armored vehicles in the latest package of military aid, saying it was a demand of Ukrainian forces.
The latest package of US military aid announced by the White House, the day before yesterday, was the largest yet in Kyiv, and included for the first time Bradley armored vehicles known as tank killers, because of the anti-tank missiles they fire.
The official in charge of Russia affairs at the US Department of Defense, Laura Cooper, said that the new military aid to Ukraine is estimated at more than three billion dollars, and includes especially 50 Bradley armored vehicles and dozens of other armored vehicles, but the weapons do not include offensive tanks that Kyiv is asking the West to provide it with.
The new aid also includes 100 M113 armored personnel carriers, 55 MRAP mine-resistant armored vehicles and 18 howitzers, in addition to artillery bombs, mortars, air defense missiles and pistols.
Follow our latest local and sports news and the latest political and economic developments via Google news