Today, Saturday, British intelligence revealed estimates about the fighting in Ukraine during the armistice announced by Moscow, and while it was reported that Russian forces had advanced into the city of Solidar in the Donbass region (east), Russian President Vladimir Putin celebrated Christmas mass in a church of the Tsars in the Kremlin at a time when Russian officials seek To sanctify the war in the western neighbor.

In its daily report, which includes an assessment of field developments in Ukraine, British intelligence said that fighting continued in Ukraine during Christmas at the Orthodox Christians at the same usual level.

She added that the most violent fighting was still taking place around the city of Kremina in the Lugansk region, which together with the neighboring Donetsk region form the Donbass region in eastern Ukraine.

And British intelligence added that the fighting concentrated in the past three weeks in forests west of Cremina, noting that the Ukrainian and Russian sides were having difficulty directing the ranks due to lack of vision.

And the Ukrainian forces announced earlier that they had tightened their fire control on the road leading to the city of Kremina.


Fighting despite the truce

Also, on the ground, fighting continued in several axes in eastern Ukraine, despite the armistice announced by Moscow, which ends by midnight next night, and amid mutual accusations of violating it.

And the Russian Ministry of Defense announced today, Saturday, that the Russian army is committed to the ceasefire armistice along the line of contact in Ukraine, but Kyiv accused Moscow of continuing its attacks, describing the armistice as a play.

And the Ukrainian army announced today, Saturday, that its forces are still controlling the strategic city of Solidar, near the city of Bakhmut, in the Donetsk region.

The Ukrainian army added that the fighting is still going on in the vicinity of the city, in light of the use of heavy weapons by Russian forces.

The Russian version of developments

This comes after the Russian forces announced their advance to the city's neighborhoods, and the pro-Russian Luhansk forces confirmed that the Ukrainian forces had received orders to withdraw from Solidar.

The Russian Ministry of Defense spoke about thwarting a Ukrainian attack on the Donetsk axis and killing about 50 Ukrainian soldiers, and it also talked about Ukrainian bombing of Russian army sites in the Krasny Liman axis in the Lugansk region.

The pro-Russian authorities in Donetsk also announced that Ukrainian forces continued to bomb areas under their control last night and Saturday morning.

On the other hand, the head of the Ukrainian military administration in Luhansk, Sergey Hayday, accused the pro-Russian forces of violating the armistice announced by Moscow unilaterally, stressing that the Russian forces continued to bomb Ukrainian sites on more than one front during the past hours.

In Zaporizhia County (southeast), the Ukrainian authorities said that during the past 24 hours, Russian forces had bombed infrastructure in 12 regions and towns, and that they were continuing their attempt to force the residents of the province to obtain Russian passports.

In another field development, the pro-Russian governor of the city of Sevastopol in Crimea announced that today, Saturday, the air defenses shot down a drone over the city.

Since the beginning of the war on February 24 of last year, Crimea - which Russia annexed to it in 2014 - has been subjected to a series of drone attacks, all targeting the Russian naval fleet stationed in the port of Sevastopol on the Black Sea.

In the Church of the Caesars

On the other hand, Russian President Vladimir Putin attended the midnight mass on the occasion of Christmas of the Orthodox Church according to the Eastern calendar.

Rather than join other worshipers in a public ceremony, Putin appeared alone at and participated in the prayer ceremony in the Kremlin's Cathedral Church of the Annunciation, which was originally built for the Russian tsars.

And the Kremlin published pictures of him appearing alone, while Orthodox priests in stunning robes presided over the ceremony, holding long candles.

In a statement issued by the Russian presidency on Saturday, Putin praised the Russian Orthodox Church's support for Russia's war on Ukraine, which Russian leaders call a "special military operation."

Putin said he considered the Russian Orthodox Church an important force for stabilizing society at a time he said he was witnessing a historic clash between Russia and the West over Ukraine and other issues.

It's Russian Orthodox Christmas today, and Putin is spending it alone in the Kremlin at a service apparently not attended by anyone else pic.twitter.com/eV3i5RxHsZ

— max seddon (@maxseddon) January 6, 2023

Adding a religious and sacred dimension to war

According to Reuters, there are 100 million Orthodox Christians in Russia out of 260 million Orthodox Christians in the world.

The Russian Orthodox Church strongly supported the war waged by Russia on its western neighbor.

For several weeks, Moscow has been trying to add a religious and sacred dimension to its attack on Ukraine, but this discourse is causing division even within the Orthodox Church, according to Agence France-Presse.

And last week, the Russian president said in a New Year's message that Russia's "moral and historical right" in this war.

And last November, Dmitry Medvedev, deputy head of the Russian Security Council, said that the "sacred goal" of the attack on Ukraine was to "stop the lord of hell," as he put it.

In the context, Moscow sent dozens of priests to the battle front to support the soldiers.