Russia bombs Ukraine at midnight after self-proclaimed ceasefire ends

Moscow:

Russia’s overnight shelling of eastern Ukraine has killed at least one person, local officials said Sunday, after Moscow ended a self-proclaimed Christmas truce and vowed to keep fighting until it won a victory over its neighbour. Said to

President Vladimir Putin on Friday ordered a 36-hour ceasefire along the line of contact for Russia and Ukraine to observe Orthodox Christmas, which fell on Saturday. Ukraine had rejected the ceasefire, and there was shelling in the border areas.

A 50-year-old man was killed in the northeastern region of Kharkiv as a result of Russian shelling, the region’s governor, Oleh Tsinehubov, said on the Telegram messaging app. The news came after midnight in Moscow.

Most Ukrainian Orthodox Christians traditionally celebrate Christmas on January 7, as do Orthodox Christians in Russia. But this year, the Orthodox Church of Ukraine, the country’s largest, also allowed celebrations on December 25. Nevertheless, many people celebrated the holiday by attending churches and cathedrals on Saturday.

The Kremlin said Moscow would press ahead with a “special military operation” in Ukraine and what Kyiv and its Western allies call an unprovoked aggression to grab land.

“The tasks set by the president (Putin) for the special military operation will still be carried out,” Russian state TASS agency quoted Sergei Kiriyenko, Putin’s first deputy chief of staff, as saying.

“And will certainly win.”

There is no end in sight to the war, now in its 11th month, that has killed thousands, displaced millions and reduced Ukrainian cities to rubble.

Ukrainian officials also reported explosions in areas that make up the wider Donbass region – the war’s front line where fighting has been raging for months.

Pavlo Kirilenko, the governor of Donetsk region in Ukraine, said the region was hit by nine missile attacks overnight, seven of which hit the city of Kramatorsk. According to preliminary information, no casualties have been reported.

A local official said explosions were also heard in the city of Zaporizhia, the administrative center of the Zaporizhia region.

Ukraine’s President Volodymyr Zelensky said on Wednesday that Russia was planning a major new offensive. Putin’s objective to capture Ukrainian territory has not changed, the Pentagon said Friday, even as his forces continue to come under fire.

There are growing concerns that Belarus, a staunch supporter of Moscow, could be used as a staging ground to attack Ukraine from the north following increased military activity in the country and new transfers of Russian troops there.

Unofficial Telegram channels monitoring military activity in Belarus reported late Saturday that some 1,400-1,600 Russian troops from Russia had arrived in the northeastern city of Vitebsk in the past two days.

Reuters was not able to independently verify the information.

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