Strikes were reported on Friday in the Ukrainian region of Bakhmout and Kramatorsk, despite the theoretical start of the truce unilaterally decreed by Vladimir Putin on the occasion of Orthodox Christmas. The Russian army, for its part, claims to respect the truce and accuses Ukraine of being solely responsible for the bombing.
AFP journalists observed artillery fire from the Russian side and the Ukrainian side in Bakhmout, the epicenter of the fighting in eastern Ukraine, in the morning. Russian airstrikes also twice hit the city of Kramatorsk in eastern Ukraine.
“The occupiers attacked the city with rockets twice. A private residential building was hit. According to preliminary information, there are no casualties,” Kyrylo Tymoshenko said on Telegram.
Pavlo Diatchenko, a Bakhmout policeman, said the truce was a Russian “provocation” that would not help the city’s civilians. “They are shelled day and night and almost every day people are killed,” he said.
Russia ensures respect for the truce
The truce will not have lasted long. It was to start at 10am French time this Friday and end at 10pm French time on Saturday, as the Orthodox currently celebrate Christmas. It was to be the first ceasefire since the conflict began last February.
“Despite the respect of the ceasefire regime by the Russian troops (…) the Kyiv regime has continued to bombard Russian cities and positions,” however, the Russian Ministry of Defense assures in its daily report.
The truce was declared this Thursday by Vladimir Putin, after an appeal by the Russian Orthodox Patriarch Kirill and a proposal by the Turkish head of state, Recep Tayyip Erdogan.
Ukraine, however, welcomed this announcement, calling this initiative an “act of propaganda”. President Volodymyr Zelensky had denounced an “apology with the aim of at least stopping the advance of our troops in the Donbass and bringing equipment, ammunition and bringing men closer to our positions.”
This ceasefire “will do nothing to promote the prospects for peace,” British Foreign Secretary James Cleverly responded, calling for a permanent withdrawal of Russian forces. Such a truce will not bring “neither freedom nor security” in Ukraine, German diplomacy abounded.
Source: BFM TV
