A temporary ceasefire unilaterally imposed by Vladimir Putin on Russia’s forces in Ukraine appears to have had little effect on the ground, with artillery fire ringing out on the front line.
Russia’s Defence Ministry was at pains to point out that troops were upholding the pause “along the entire line of contact”, accusing Ukraine of shelling Russian-held territory – despite the fact that Kyiv never agreed to the ceasefire, dismissing it as a ploy by Moscow to buy time to reinforce troops after taking heavy losses.
President Putin ordered the 36-hour ceasefire from midday on Friday (9am GMT) to observe Orthodox Christmas and called on Kyiv to reciprocate. The governor of Luhansk in eastern Ukraine, Serhiy Haidai, accused Russian troops of opening fire 14 times during the first three hours of the ceasefire, adding that forces had tried to storm one of the villages liberated by Ukraine in the area. Explosions were also said to have been heard on other parts of the front line in the east, which Ukrainian soldiers said were incoming Russian rocket fire.
The Ukrainian troops told Reuters it was a comparatively quiet day, but that this was not due to any ceasefire – rather to the snowy weather, which made it impossible to fly drones and harder to spot targets for artillery. “What ceasefire? Can you hear?” said a Ukrainian soldier using the nom de guerre Vyshnya, as an explosion rang out in the distance at the front line near Kreminna in eastern Ukraine. “What do they want to achieve if they keep on shooting? We know, we have learnt not to trust them.”
One witness in the Russian-occupied regional capital Donetsk, close to the front, also described artillery fired from pro-Russian positions on the city’s outskirts after the truce was meant to take effect.
Russia’s Defence Ministry spokesperson, Igor Konashenkov, reported multiple attacks in the eastern regions of Donetsk, Luhansk and Zaporizhzhia by Ukraine. The four areas are occupied by Russian forces and Moscow claims that they are now part of Russian territory – an act seen as illegal by the international community.
Pro-Russian officials had indicated they would keep fighting if Ukraine does. Denis Pushilin, the Russian-installed official in Donetsk, said that Mr Putin’s order only covered offensive operations and his forces would hit back if fired upon.
In the hours prior to the ceasefire, rockets slammed into a residential building in the Ukrainian city of Kramatorsk, also close to the eastern front line, damaging 14 homes but with no casualties, the mayor said. Residents described several explosions. One rescue worker was killed and four others injured when Russian forces shelled a fire department in the southern Ukrainian city of Kherson early on Friday.
The ceasefire is nominally due to last until the end of Saturday, but it is unlikely to have any kind of lasting effect. Vladimir Saldo, a Moscow -installed administrator of Ukraine’s Kherson region, described the ceasefire as “a gesture of goodwill” but said the situation on the front lines would not change because of it.
Civilians on the streets of Kyiv – one of a number of regions around Ukraine where air raid sirens sounded soon after the ceasefire went into effect, although no attacks were reported – appear not be holding out much hope that the Russian-ordered ceasefire will change anything.
“Everybody is preparing [for an attack] because everybody remembers what happened on the new year when there were around 40 Shahed [Iranian drones],” local resident Vasyl Kuzmenko told the Associated Press. “But everything is possible.”
Ukraine’s president, Volodymyr Zelensky, made clear his disdain for Mr Putin’s actions after the ceasefire order was issued. “Now they want to use Christmas as a cover to stop the advance of our guys in the [eastern] Donbas [region] for a while and bring equipment, ammunition and mobilised people closer to our positions,” he said in an address late on Thursday.
Speaking in Russian and not Ukrainian during his nightly address late on Thursday, Mr Zelensky said that ending the war meant “ending your country’s aggression ... And the war will end either when your soldiers leave or we throw them out.”
US state department spokesperson Ned Price said Washington had “little faith in the intentions behind this announcement”, saying Kremlin officials “have given us no reason to take anything that they offer at face value”.
The truce order seems to be a ploy “to rest, refit, regroup, and ultimately re-attack”, he said. Former Russian president Dmitry Medvedev, the deputy head of Russia’s security council, said those who rejected Mr Putin’s proposal for a Christmas truce were “clowns” and “pigs”.
Elsewhere on Friday, Ukraine’s deputy military intelligence chief, Vadym Skibitsky, suggested that Moscow could be readying to mobilise up to 500,000 conscripts for a number of offensives in the coming months. Kyiv – particularly Mr Zelensky – has been warning for weeks that a new ground offensive could be coming. Russia has denied it is preparing a second wave of mobilisation, but it is clear that Moscow’s invasion is likely to drag on.
Support from Western nations for Ukraine shows little sign of waning. The White House announced on Friday a new $3.75bn (£3.1bn) military assistance package to help Ukraine and its neighbors on Nato’s eastern flank, with the assistance including Bradley armored vehicles for Kyiv for the first time. The armored carrier is known as a “tank-killer” because of the anti-tank missiles it can fire.
The biggest US assistance package to date for Ukraine includes a $2.85bn that will be sent directly to Ukraine and $225m in foreign military financing to build the long-term capacity and support the modernisation of Ukraine’s military. It also includes $682m in foreign military financing for European allies to help backfill donations of military equipment they’ve made to Kyiv.
“The war is at a critical point and we must do everything we can to help the Ukrainians resist Russian aggression,” White House press secretary Karine Jean-Pierre said.
Mr Zelensky also said he had spoken by phone to the German chancellor, Olaf Scholz, on Friday, and thanked him for a “powerful defense package” that would help Ukraine fend off Russian troops and defend its cities. In a joint statement with Washington on Thursday, Berlin said it would provide Kyiv with Marder Infantry Fighting Vehicles and a Patriot air-defence system.
A UN agency report released on Friday said that Ukraine would need at least $1.79bn to restore its telecommunications sector to pre-war levels. The assessment by the Geneva-based International Telecommunication Union (ITU) was commissioned in April to assess the extent of destruction of Ukraine’s communication networks as a result of Russia’s invasion.
The report, which covers the first six months of the war, found that there was considerable damage and destruction to communications infrastructure in more than 10 out of 24 regions of Ukraine.
Reuters and the Associated Press contributed to this report
