Faced with ongoing strikes, Ukrainians are indifferent to Russian ‘truce’

As every day, on both sides of the front in Ukraine, artillery fire is heard with a roar. And, as on the previous day, the Russian army assured that it intends to continue the truce until midnight this Saturday (22:00 in France), while condemning the ongoing Ukrainian artillery shelling of its positions.

She claimed to have repulsed attacks or responded to Ukrainian fire in several places along the front, inflicting casualties on the enemy. Ukraine has never believed in a 36-hour ceasefire, claiming it is a ploy to buy time. Washington, Paris, London, Berlin and the European Union criticized this initiative.

Journalists present in the village of Chasov Yar in eastern Ukraine observed continuous shelling throughout the morning. In Bakhmut, the epicenter of the fighting further north, AFP already heard artillery duels from both sides of the front on Friday, hours after Russia established a unilateral ceasefire. According to the Ukrainian prosecutor’s office, two people died and 13 were injured.

“Routine” battle rhythm

True, the shelling became less intense. Maybe the soldiers are giving themselves a break, or maybe the snow is just getting in the way of piloting drones and finding targets. Orthodox Christmas or not, fighting in Ukraine continues at a “normal” pace, the Ukrainian Defense Ministry tweeted on Saturday.

One of the most bitter disputes remains the city of Kremina and its environs in the Luhansk region. The forest to the west of the town “provides some cover from aerial surveillance, even in winter, and both sides are likely to have difficulty fine-tuning artillery fire.”

Attacks have been reported in at least seven regions of eastern and southern Ukraine over the past 24 hours, killing at least three people and injuring 14, Kyiv Independent reported this Saturday morning. Russian troops fired 39 times on the south of the Kherson region on Friday. In the liberated Kherson, residential buildings and a fire department came under fire, Governor Yaroslav Yanushevich reports on Telegram. It is reported that the rescuer died, seven more people were injured.

But the Russian army, it guarantees the observance of the ceasefire. She condemns Ukrainian artillery shelling, targeting annexed Crimea in particular: their air defenses in the occupied city of Sevastopol shot down a Ukrainian drone during an apparent attack on the port where the Russian Black Sea Fleet is based.

According to the city’s Russian-backed governor, Mikhail Razvozhaev, the incident took place early this Saturday morning, the day of Orthodox Christmas. “Even the sacred holiday of Christmas did not become a reason for these inhuman people to stop trying to attack our heroic city,” he wrote on Telegram.