Russia’s overnight bombing of regions in eastern Ukraine killed at least one, local officials said Sunday, after Moscow ended a self-proclaimed Christmas truce and vowed to continue fighting until it achieves victory over its neighbor.
President Vladimir Putin on Friday ordered a 36-hour ceasefire along the contact line to observe Russia and Ukraine’s Orthodox Christmas, which fell on Saturday. Ukraine rejected the ceasefire and there was shelling on the front line.
A 50-year-old man died in the northeastern region of Kharkiv as a result of Russian shelling, regional governor Oleg Sinegubov said on the Telegram messaging app. The news came minutes after midnight in Moscow.
Most Ukrainian Orthodox Christians traditionally celebrate Christmas on January 7, as do Russian Orthodox Christians. But this year, the Orthodox Church of Ukraine, the largest in the country, also allowed the celebration on December 25. Still, many celebrated the holiday on Saturday, flocking to churches and cathedrals.
“There will surely be victory”
The Kremlin has said Moscow will continue with what it calls a “special military operation” in Ukraine and what Kyiv and its Western allies call an unprovoked aggression to seize land.
“The tasks set by the president [Putin] because the special military operation will still be carried out,” Russian state news agency TASS quoted Putin’s first deputy chief of staff, Sergei Kiriyenko, as saying.
“And there will surely be victory.”
Metropolitan Epiphany I, head of the Orthodox Church of Ukraine, leads a Christmas service for the first time in the Uspensky (Holy Assumption) Cathedral, in the complex of the Kiev-Pechersk Lavra monastery, previously used by the branch of the Ukrainian Orthodox Church faithful to Moscow, Atakata of Russia against Ukraine in Kyiv on Saturday. (Valentin Ogirenko/Reuters)
There is no end in sight to the war, now in its 11th month, which has killed thousands, displaced millions and reduced Ukrainian cities to rubble.
Ukrainian officials also reported explosions in regions that make up the wider Donbass region, the frontline of the war, where fighting has raged for months.
Pavlo Kirilenko, the governor of Ukraine’s Donetsk region, said there had been nine rocket strikes in the region overnight, including seven on the devastated city of Kramatorsk. According to preliminary information, no one was injured.
Explosions elsewhere
Explosions were also heard in the city of Zaporozhye, the administrative center of Zaporozhye region, a local official said, without immediate reports of damage or casualties.
Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky said on Wednesday that Russia is planning another major offensive. The Pentagon said Friday that Putin’s goal of seizing Ukrainian territory has not changed, even as his military continues to take hits.
There are growing fears that Belarus – a staunch supporter of Moscow – could be used as a springboard for an attack on Ukraine from the north following an increase in military activity in the country and a new redeployment of Russian troops there.
Unofficial Telegram channels monitoring military activity in Belarus reported late Saturday that about 1,400 to 1,600 Russian soldiers had arrived from Russia in the northeastern Belarusian city of Vitebsk over the past two days.
Reuters was unable to independently verify the information.
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