Front-line fighting persists as Putin’s 36-hour truce goes nowhere
MOSCOW — The unilateral ceasefire in Ukraine announced by Russian President Vladimir Putin to mark Orthodox Christmas officially came into force at midday Friday but, as expected, never stuck.
The likelihood of the truce holding for the ordered 36 hours, starting at noon Moscow time, had been considered remote, with Kyiv’s Western allies criticizing the Kremlin’s offer as having been made in bad faith.
The Kremlin had said on Thursday it wanted to give believers the opportunity to attend church services. It would have been the first cease-fire along the entire front line since Russia’s full-scale invasion began on Feb. 24 last year.
The Ukrainian leadership blasted Moscow’s cease-fire as a diversionary tactic and hypocritical, saying there can only be peace after the withdrawal of Russian troops from Ukraine.
The Ukrainian Defense Ministry said Friday its soldiers were still launching attacks, especially in the eastern Donetsk region.
“In this way, they congratulate the occupiers on the approaching Christmas!” the ministry wrote.
In the small eastern city of Bakhmut, it said, positions of the Russians were shelled with 120-millimeter mortar shells as a “gift.”
According to Moscow, Russian troops also returned fire.
“The resistance will continue until the last Russian invader on Ukrainian soil is killed!” the statement from Kiev said.
An air raid alert was in effect for the whole of Ukraine for around two hours on Friday. According to reports, the trigger was several Russian planes that flew over neighboring Belarus, fueling fears of new attacks from the north.
Although the Russian army had wanted to stick to the ceasefire, Ukraine has continued to fire artillery at towns and positions, army spokesman Igor Konashenkov said in Moscow.
He said there were battles on three front line areas. In the north near the small town of Lyman, the Ukrainian military attacked with grenade launchers; a little further south near the village of Bilohorivka in the Luhansk region with artillery.
There was also artillery fire on Russian positions in the south of the Donetsk region. The Russian troops fired back. “During the return fire, the positions of the Ukrainian forces from which the shots were fired were pinned down,” Konashenkov claimed.
Moscow-appointed politicians in the occupied territories of Ukraine made it clear they were prepared to fight. Putin’s order, they said, only concerned acts of aggression from the Russian side.
“This does not mean that we will not respond to provocations by the enemy! Or will even give the enemy any chance to improve their positions on the front line during these holiday hours,” the Moscowappointed governor in Donetsk, Denis Pushilin, wrote on Telegram.
Russia’s former president Dmitry Medvedev on Friday berated Ukrainian politicians for rejecting
the cease-fire.
“Pigs have no faith or innate sense of gratitude. They only understand brute force and squealingly demand food from their masters,” said Medvedev, who serves as head of Russia’s Security Council, on his Telegram channel.
Medvedev said the Russian leadership has extended the “hand of Christian charity” to the Ukrainians and it was refused.
Meanwhile, Poland welcomed
Germany’s plan to hand over a Patriot air defence system to Ukraine. “This decision is in line with what Poland had already proposed at the end of November,” Polish Foreign Minister Zbigniew Rau wrote on Twitter.
At that time, the government in Warsaw had suggested that Germany should transfer several Patriot systems offered to Poland to Ukraine instead. This subsequently triggered debate between
the two allies.
In a major policy shift on Thursday, the German government announced that it would provide Ukraine with several dozen Marder infantry fighting vehicles and a Patriot air defence system, following agreements with the US government.
Germany plans to hand over about 40 Marder battle tanks in the first three months of the new year, government spokesperson Steffen Hebestreit said on Friday.