IN THE WORLD TODAY

Putin’s ceasefire questioned

AN UNEASY calm in Kyiv has been broken by air raid sirens which also blared out across the rest of Ukraine despite a Russian ceasefire scorned by Ukrainian officials.

No explosions were heard in the capital but news of any fighting elsewhere in the country could take hours to become public.

The Russian military said Ukrainian forces continued to shell its positions despite the truce – which Kyiv never agreed to.

Russia’s defence ministry said its forces returned fire to suppress the attacks, though it was not entirely clear from the statement whether the attacks and return fire took place before or after the ceasefire was meant to start.

This further called into question Russian president Vladimir Putin’s ceasefire, which allegedly began at 12pm local time yesterday and will continue until midnight tomorrow.

Ukrainian and western officials suspect an ulterior motive.

Ukrainian president Volodymyr Zelenskyy questioned the Kremlin’s intentions, accusing it of planning the fighting pause “to continue the war with renewed vigour”.

“Now they want to use Christmas as a cover to stop the advance of our guys in the Donbas for a while and bring equipment, ammunition and mobilised people closer to our positions,” he said.

The Institute For The Study Of War agreed the truce may be a ruse allowing Russia to regroup: “Such a pause would disproportionately benefit Russian troops and begin to deprive Ukraine of the initiative,” it said.

“Putin cannot reasonably expect Ukraine to meet the terms of this suddenly declared ceasefire and may have called for [ it] to frame Ukraine as unwilling to [ negotiate].”