In Kharkiv, Governor Oleh Synehubov reported one fatality on Telegram. “Attention to residents of Kharkiv and the region: stay in shelters. The occupiers strike again!” he also wrote. Adviser to Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy Mykhailo Podoliak reported on Saturday Russian shelling along the entire front. Ukraine’s Prosecutor General’s Office also said two civilians were killed and 13 others wounded by Russian shelling in Bakhmut, Donetsk region on Friday. According to the local occupation administration, two thermal power plants in the region were also damaged by Ukrainian shelling.
Eyewitnesses also reported constant artillery shelling in the city of Chasiv Yar. The Ukrainian General Staff reported a Russian rocket attack, and within 24 hours the Russian side had also fired 20 projectiles from several rocket launchers.
Putin announced the temporary ceasefire on Thursday and justified it with the Christmas festival that many Orthodox Christians celebrated on January 7th. Ukraine, however, rejected this as a propaganda gesture and continued its attempts at reconquest. There can be no peace as long as Russian troops occupy Ukrainian territory, sources in Kyiv said.
Ukraine: Air alert and explosions in Kharkiv
The ceasefire announced by Russia expired on Sunday night. The result was an air alert and reports of explosions in the eastern Ukrainian city of Kharkiv.
Russia: Only attacks returned
On Saturday night, Zelenskyy said in his daily video address that “the world saw once again today how wrong any word that comes from any level in Moscow is.” The Russians “said something about an alleged ceasefire. But in reality Bakhmut and other Ukrainian positions were again hit by Russian volleys.”
Russia had previously also acknowledged disregard for the self-imposed ceasefire. However, only Ukrainian attacks were replied to, said the spokesman for the Russian Defense Ministry, Igor Konashenkov. “All positions of the Ukrainian army from which the shelling was fired were crushed by Russian forces returning fire,” Konashenkov said.
Focus on Bachmut
Many international observers also doubted from the start that the Russian arms would really remain silent. The small town of Bakhmut has been the focus of the fighting for weeks. During their siege, the mercenary group Wagner made a name for themselves. Its founder Yevgeny Prigoschin justified the advance to the small town with the tunnel systems there, in which tanks can also be hidden. “The icing on the cake is the Soledar and Bakhmut mining system, which is actually a network of underground cities,” Prigozhin told Telegram on Saturday. “Not only can it accommodate a large group of people at a depth of 80 to 100 meters, but tanks and armored personnel carriers can also move in it.”
Prigozhin spoke out after suspicions had been raised that there was a push for the capture of Bakhmut and its salt and gypsum mines for commercial reasons. According to military experts, the great military effort involved in besieging the city bears no relation to its comparatively low strategic importance.
The area around the city of Kreminna in the Luhansk region continues to be a hotly contested area, according to the British Defense Ministry’s daily briefing on Saturday. “For the past three weeks, fighting around Kreminna has been concentrated in the densely forested area west of the city.” Since the forests provide some privacy from aerial observation, even in winter, both sides are likely to have difficulty withstanding artillery fire set precisely.
“World’s Largest Minefield”
According to Ukrainian Prime Minister Denys Schmyhal, the Russian war of aggression in Ukraine has created a 250,000 square kilometer minefield in his country. “It is currently the largest minefield in the world,” Schmyhal said in an interview with South Korea’s Yonhap news agency published on Saturday. According to Schmyhal, the mined area corresponds to more than 40 percent of the entire land area of Ukraine. “Not only does this make it difficult for people to travel, but it also causes major disruption to agriculture, which is one of our main industries,” the prime minister said.
