The artillery duels continued this Friday in Bakhmut, the epicenter of the fighting in eastern Ukraine, with bombardments in other areas of the country, despite Moscow’s announcement of a 36-hour unilateral ceasefire, denounced as a “maneuver” by kyiv.
Several shots from the two sides in the conflict were heard after the start of the ceasefire in this city with the streets destroyed and almost deserted, but their intensity was lower compared to the previous days, the AFP news agency indicated.
Bakhmut policeman Pavlo Diatchenko said the truce was a Russian “provocation” that would not help civilians still in the city. “They are bombarded day and night and almost every day people die,” he was quoted as saying by AFP.
The Russian army promised to respect the truce, but accused the Ukrainian troops of “continuing the shelling of Russian cities and positions.”
The deputy head of the Ukrainian presidential administration, Kyrylo Tymochenko, recorded two Russian attacks in Kramatorsk (east), which would have hit a residential building if they had caused casualties. Before the truce, he had mentioned a Russian bombardment of Kherson (south).
In the Lugansk region (east), according to Ukrainian officials, 14 artillery shots and three Russian assaults were reported, with civilians remaining in shelters.
For their part, the Russian-speaking separatist authorities in eastern Ukraine have revealed that Ukrainian forces have again bombarded their stronghold of Donetsk, before and after the theoretical entry into force of the ceasefire, announced Thursday by the president. Russian Vladimir Putin.
The Russian Presidency (Kremlin) said on Thursday that Putin had responded to a call by the Patriarch of the Russian Orthodox Church for a truce over Christmas celebrations, ordering a ceasefire across the line of contact in Ukraine from 12:00 ( Moscow, 9:00 a.m. Lisbon) from January 6 of this year until midnight on January 7 (9:00 p.m. Lisbon time).
Mykhailo Podolyak, an adviser to the Ukrainian president, called Putin’s announcement “hypocritical” and said that “only if Russia leaves the occupied territories will a ‘temporary truce’ be possible.”
US President Joe Biden said Putin was trying to “catch a breather” by announcing a ceasefire, having been “on December 25 and into the New Year.”
The head of German diplomacy also downplayed the Russian ceasefire, stating that “if Putin wanted peace, he would take his soldiers home.” “Apparently, [Putin] wants to continue the war, after a brief interruption”, considered Annalena Baerbock.
The military offensive launched on February 24 by Russia in Ukraine has so far caused the flight of more than 14 million people -6.5 million internally displaced persons and more than 7.9 million to European countries-, according to the latest UN data, which classifies this refugee crisis as the worst in Europe since World War II (1939-1945).
Right now, 17.7 million Ukrainians need humanitarian aid and 9.3 million need food aid and shelter.
The Russian invasion – justified by Russian President Vladimir Putin as the need to “denazify” and demilitarize Ukraine for Russia’s security – was condemned by the wider international community, which has responded by sending arms to Ukraine and imposing them on Russia in political and economic sanctions.
The UN presented as confirmed since the beginning of the war 6,919 dead civilians and 11,075 wounded, stressing that these figures are far below the real ones.
Source: TSF
