Artillery duels continued this Friday, January 6 in Bakhmout, the epicenter of fighting in eastern Ukraine, and shelling elsewhere in the country, despite the entry into force of a unilateral ceasefire decreed by Russia on the occasion of Orthodox Christmas.
Moscow Diary: “Why do the Russian priests remain silent? »
AFP journalists heard shots on the Ukrainian and Russian sides after the start of the ceasefire in this city with largely destroyed and deserted streets, but their intensity was lower than in previous days.
Dozens of civilians were gathered in a building used for the distribution of humanitarian aid, where volunteers organized a Christmas celebration, distributing tangerines, apples and cookies, an hour before the truce took effect Russian. Pavlo Diatchenko, a policeman from Bakhmout, assured that the truce was a ” provocation “ Russian who would not help the civilians of the city. “They are bombarded day and night and almost every day there are people killed”he said.
The Russian army assured to respect its truce, but accused the Ukrainian troops of “continue to bombard Russian cities and positions”.
The deputy head of the Ukrainian presidential administration, Kyrylo Tymoshenko, reported two Russian strikes on Kramatorsk (in the east) having hit a residential building without causing any casualties. Earlier, before the truce, he had mentioned a Russian bombardment on Kherson (in the south).
The pro-Russian separatist authorities in eastern Ukraine, for their part, reported several Ukrainian bombardments on their stronghold of Donetsk before and after the theoretical entry into force of the ceasefire, announced the day before by the President Vladimir Putin.
Following a call from the Russian Orthodox Patriarch Kirill, but also a proposal from the Turkish Head of State Recep Tayyip Erdogan, Vladimir Putin had asked his army to observe a “ceasefire along the entire line of contact between the parties from 12 p.m. (10 a.m. in Paris) on January 6 until midnight (9 p.m. in Paris) on January 7”.
First major truce since the start of the offensive
This is the first time that a major truce has been announced in Ukraine since the start of the Russian invasion in February 2022. Short halts in fighting had previously been observed locally, such as for the evacuation of civilians from the Azovstal plant in Mariupol (southeast) in April.
Ukraine questioned the sincerity of the Russian initiative, brushing it off as a “act of propaganda”. According to its president Volodymyr Zelensky, it is a “apology in order to at least stop the advance of our troops in the Donbass and to bring equipment, ammunition, and bring men closer to our positions”.
Vladimir Putin had called on the Ukrainian forces to respect this truce in order to give the possibility to the Orthodox, the majority confession in Ukraine as in Russia, to“to attend services on Christmas Eve, as well as on the day of the Nativity of Christ”.
“Russia must leave the occupied territories, only then will there be a ‘temporary truce’. Keep your hypocrisy”reacted Thursday on Twitter an adviser to the Ukrainian presidency, Mykhaïlo Podoliak.
“Putin is ready to go after Ukraine”, according to historian Françoise Thom
For the American president, Vladimir Putin seeks “to give oneself air”. He “was ready to bomb hospitals, nurseries and churches […] December 25 and New Year’squipped Joe Biden.
This ceasefire “will do nothing to advance the prospects for peace”, responded British Foreign Minister James Cleverly, calling for a permanent withdrawal of Russian forces. Such a truce will only bring “neither freedom nor security” in Ukraine, abounded the German diplomacy.
Zelensky still calls for a total withdrawal of Russian forces
In his telephone conversation with Recep Tayyip Erdogan, Vladimir Putin assured that Russia was ready for a “serious conversation” with Ukraine on condition that the latter comply with Russian demands and accept the “new territorial realities”or the annexation claimed by Moscow in September of four Ukrainian regions.
Volodymyr Zelensky insists on him for a total withdrawal of Russian forces from his country, Crimea included, before any dialogue with Moscow. Otherwise, he promises to take back the occupied territories by force.
War in Ukraine, Iran, North Korea… 2023 and the consolidation of chaos
During his talks with Recep Tayyip Erdogan, Vladimir Putin accused Westerners of “feeding the kyiv regime with weapons and military equipment and providing it with operational and targeting information”.
The United States and Germany thus promised Thursday in kyiv the delivery of armored infantry, of the Bradley type on the American side and of the Marder model on the German side, after the announcement by France of sending light tanks.
