Ukraine fire station hit hours before truce
West decries hypocrisy of Putin after attack kills one in run-up to truce meant to mark Orthodox Christmas
Russian artillery hit a fire station in Kherson in north-east Ukraine yesterday, killing one fireman hours before the start of a Kremlin-ordered ceasefire to mark the Orthodox Christmas. Shelling also continued in the Donbas region after midday, the supposed start of the first countrywide ceasefire since the war began in February. Anton Gerashchenko, a Ukrainian adviser, said: “Russia announces a ceasefire at noon and hurries to strike in the morning.”
RUSSIAN artillery hit a fire station in Kherson in north-east Ukraine yesterday, killing one fireman hours before the start of a Kremlin-ordered ceasefire to mark the Orthodox Christmas.
Sporadic shelling also continued across the eastern Donbas region after midday, the supposed start of the first countrywide ceasefire since Russia’s full-scale invasion in February.
Anton Gerashchenko, an adviser to the Ukrainian interior ministry, said of the strike on the fire station: “Russia announces a ceasefire at noon and hurries to strike in the morning. This is some next-level cynicism.”
Vladimir Putin, Russia’s president, ordered the 36-hour ceasefire for the traditional Christmas holiday which is celebrated by both Ukraine and Russia.
Volodymyr Zelensky, Ukraine’s president, and Western leaders have dismissed it as a ruse by the Kremlin to rest its soldiers and undermine Ukrainian battlefield momentum.
Josep Borrell, the European Union foreign policy chief, said during a visit to Morocco: “When the aggressor talks of a ceasefire, I think the response that comes to us all is scepticism in the face of such hypocrisy.”
Analysts also said the Kremlin may have ordered a ceasefire to distract its subjects from another embarrassing battlefield setback.
A Ukrainian artillery strike on an army barracks in Makiivka, a town next to rebel-held Donetsk, on New Year’s Eve may have killed up to 400 soldiers. Even the Russian ministry of defence, usually reticent about casualty figures, has said that 89 soldiers were killed in the attack.
Russia’s influential military bloggers have accused the Kremlin of incompetence and of trying to shift blame for the attack onto the dead soldiers, mainly men from Samara conscripted into the Russian army during an unpopular mobilisation, by claiming that they gave their positions away by using banned mobile phones.
One Russian military blogger quoted an unnamed source who said the commanders of the destroyed unit had admitted under interrogation that they were at “a separate New Year’s feast” when the Ukrainian artillery struck.
Russian officer incompetence and contempt for their juniors have been a hallmark of this campaign, undermining Russia’s military progress and chipping away at public confidence in the Kremlin and Mr Putin’s so-called “special military operation”. Separately, after a telephone conversation with Mr Zelensky, Olaf Scholz, Germany’s chancellor, confirmed that it would send Ukraine more military aid.
Mr Scholz said that Marder infantry fighting vehicles and a battery of Patriot anti-aircraft missile systems, some of the most powerful weapons pledged by the West to Ukraine, would be handed over by the end of March. France has also promised to send infantry fighting vehicles, which can be mistaken for tanks, to Ukraine.
Western military intelligence and technological intervention has helped tip momentum away from Russia’s invading forces to Ukraine. In the initial stages of the war, shoulder-mounted anti-tank missiles slowed Russia’s advance on Kyiv and over the summer US Himars long-range artillery destroyed Russian supply depots.
The infantry fighting vehicles and the Patriot missiles are expected to be the next stage in Ukraine’s strategy.
Given their disappointing performance at the start of the war in Ukraine, we should welcome renewed efforts by European allies to beef up their support for Kyiv.
Earlier this week France committed to sending AMX-10 armoured reconnaissance vehicles and Bastion armoured personnel carriers. Yesterday it was Germany’s turn, when Berlin announced it would hand around 40 Marder infantry fighting vehicles to Ukrainian commanders, who view such kit as crucial to mobile counter-offensive operations. The German announcement was accompanied by hints that more such weaponry was to come from another ally in the near future. Hopefully that means Britain.
So far, we have been key in mobilising European support for Ukraine and in leading by example. It would be desperately sad if such commitment was to falter now. It might be said that the mobile armour Ukraine so desires is one area where Britain is itself weak. Procurement has, over several decades, proved disastrous. The programme to deliver a next-generation armoured vehicle known as Ajax has descended into farce. But solutions exist. Though an upgrade programme for the Warrior infantry fighting vehicle was cancelled, Warrior remains a significant battlefield asset. Moreover, the first vehicles of its replacement, Boxer, are due to be delivered this year.
There are two key lessons. The first is that procurement failures, which in peacetime can seem to cost only time and money, end up costing lives and eroding national security. The second is that it is now clearer than ever that our national security begins on the battlefields of Ukraine.