At least three killed in Russian attacks on Ukraine despite Moscow’s self-declared ceasefire; UK says fighting continued at ‘routine level’ into Orthodox Christmas

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Russian attacks were reported in at least seven regions in Ukraine’s east and south, despite Moscow’s declaration of a 36-hour ceasefire from midday on Friday to midnight on Saturday for Orthodox Christmas. At least three people were killed.

Russian troops shelled the Kherson region 39 times on Friday, according to governor Yaroslav Yanushevych. Residential buildings and a fire station building came under fire in the liberated city of Kherson, where a first responder was killed. Seven civilians were also wounded in the reigon.

Ukraine’s military said two were killed and 13 injured in Russia’s shelling of Bakhmut, eastern Ukraine, during the purported ceasefire. The two dead were a 66-year-old man and 61-year-old woman.

Russian troops were “terrorising” civilians in the north-eastern region of Kharkiv, said its governor, Oleh Syniehubov. No casualties have been reported, but residential and commercial buildings continued to come under fire.

Russian forces shelled Ukrainian positions 14 times and stormed one settlement three times in the frontline eastern Luhansk province in the first three hours of the purported ceasefire, governor Serhiy Haidai said, according to Reuters. It heard explosions of what Ukrainian troops at the frontline described as incoming Russian rocket fire. Ukrainians fired back from tanks.

The Russian-installed governor of the occupied Crimean city of Sevastopol has said air defences shot down a drone in an apparent attack on the port where Russia’s Black Sea fleet is based. Mikhail Razvozhaev alleged that the incident took place early on Saturday.

The UK Ministry of Defence said fighting between Russian and Ukrainian forces continued at a “routine level” into the Orthodox Christmas period. The ministry’s daily intelligence update stated that fighting was focused in heavily forested terrain to the west of the town of Kremina in eastern Ukraine’s Luhansk province, where “combat has devolved to dismounted infantry fighting, often at short range”.

The US has asked Italy to provide air defence systems to Ukraine as soon as possible. The Italian newspaper La Repubblica reported that the request was made in a conversation between the US national security adviser, Jake Sullivan, and Francesco Talo, an adviser to the Italian prime minister, Giorgia Meloni.

The Ukrainian president, Volodymyr Zelenskiy, has praised the US for including tank-killing armoured vehicles in its latest multibillion-dollar package of military aid, saying they are “exactly what is needed”. The latest US military assistance announced on Friday by the White House was the biggest to date for Kyiv, and for the first time included Bradley armoured vehicles.

Services have taken place in Ukraine to mark the first Orthodox Christmas since Russia’s invasion of the country last year. Metropolitan Epiphanius led a Christmas service at the Holy Dormition Cathedral at the Kyiv Pechersk Lavra in the Ukrainian capital.

Ukraine has updated the number of Russian troops it believes it has killed to 110,740. The general staff of the armed forces said in an update on Saturday that a further 490 troops were killed on Friday.

Reuters and Agence France-Presse contributed to this report

New $3.75bn US military aid package for Ukraine to include Bradley fighting vehicles for first time; reports of Russian shelling despite ceasefire declaration

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Reuters has the full report on how things are looking on the day of Russia’s unilateral ceasefire:

Russia and Ukraine attacked each others positions in eastern Ukraine on Friday with no sign they would observe a 36-hour ceasefire unilaterally ordered by Russian President Vladimir Putin at short notice to mark Orthodox Christmas in the region.

Patriarch Kirill, head of the Orthodox church in Russia, called for a ceasefire and a Christmas truce in Ukraine from noon on 6 January to midnight on 7 January to enable Orthodox people to attend services. Kirill has been a vocal supporter of Russia’s invasion of Ukraine.

Vladimir Putin subsequently instructed his defence minister, Sergei Shoigu, to introduce a 36-hour ceasefire along the entire line of contact in Ukraine from noon tomorrow to midnight 7 January. He said that Russian troops must hold fire for 36 hours in order to mark Orthodox Christmas.

US president Joe Biden criticised Vladimir Putin for “trying to find some oxygen” by floating a 36-hour ceasefire from tomorrow noon to mark Orthodox Christmas, noting that Putin didn’t implement the break during the 25th, which many Orthodox Ukrainians celebrate, or on new year.

In his Thursday night address, Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskiy rejected the idea, saying the goal was to halt the progress of Ukraine’s forces in Donetsk and the wider eastern Donbas region and bring in more of Moscow’s forces.

Mykhailo Podolyak, a senior aide to Ukraine’s president, dismissed Putin’s ceasefire calls. Ukraine “doesn’t attack foreign territory and doesn’t kill civilians” and “destroys only members of the occupation army on its territory”, he wrote on Twitter, adding that a “temporary truce” would be possible only when Russia leaves territory it is occupying in Ukraine.

Ukraine’s foreign minister of affairs, Dmytro Kuleba, also posted on Twitter to say that Russia’s “unilateral ceasefire can not and should not be taken seriously.”

Russia’s state first TV channel has reported: “At noon today, the ceasefire regime came into force on the entire contact line. It will continue until the end of January 7.”

Ukraine rejects Russia’s proposed ceasefire; Germany sending additional Patriot air defence battery to Ukraine

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The Ukrainian president, Volodymyr Zelenskiy, has rejected out of hand a Russian order for a truce over Orthodox Christmas, saying it was a trick to halt the progress of Ukraine’s forces in the eastern Donbas region and bring in more of their own. Speaking pointedly in Russian and addressing both the Kremlin and Russians as a whole on Thursday, Zelenskiy said Moscow had repeatedly ignored Kyiv’s own peace plan.

The Russian president, Vladimir Putin, instructed his defence minister, Sergei Shoigu, to introduce a 36-hour ceasefire along the entire line of contact in Ukraine from noon on Friday to midnight on 7 January, the Kremlin said. Russian troops must hold fire for 36 hours in order to allow people “in the areas of hostilities” to mark Orthodox Christmas, Putin said.

The war would end, Zelenskiy said, when Russian troops left Ukraine or were thrown out. “They now want to use Christmas as a cover, albeit briefly, to stop the advances of our boys in Donbas and bring equipment, ammunitions and mobilised troops closer to our positions,” the Ukrainian leader said in his nightly video address. “What will that give them? Only yet another increase in their total losses.” He said the war “will end either when your soldiers leave or we throw them out”.

The US state department expressed skepticism over Putin’s announced ceasefire, describing it as “cynical” given Moscow’s New Year’s Day attack on Ukraine and saying the US had “little faith” in the announcement’s intentions.

Putin’s announcement came hours after the head of the Russian Orthodox church, Patriarch Kirill, called for a ceasefire and a Christmas truce in Ukraine. In a statement, Kirill said he appealed to “all parties involved in the internecine conflict” for the ceasefire, so that “Orthodox people can attend services on Christmas Eve and the day of the Nativity of Christ”.

Germany will join the US in supplying an additional Patriot air defence battery to Ukraine, the White House has announced, after the German chancellor, Olaf Scholz, and the US president, Joe Biden, spoke by phone. The two leaders “expressed their common determination to continue to provide the necessary financial, humanitarian, military and diplomatic support to Ukraine for as long as needed”, the White House said in a statement.

The US believes that Vladimir Putin’s ally Yevgeny Prigozhin is interested in taking control of salt and gypsum from mines near the Ukrainian-held city of Bakhmut, a White House official said on Thursday. There were indications that monetary motives were driving Russia’s and Prigozhin’s “obsession” with Bakhmut, the official added. Prigozhin is the owner of private Russian military company Wagner Group.

Germany’s economy minister, Robert Habeck, said Germany providing weapons to Ukraine was a “good decision” during a Thursday briefing. Habeck’s department has to approve weapons exports.

The Russian president has called for ceasefire to take place from noon 6 January to midnight 7 January for Orthodox Christmas

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The UK’s ambassador to Ukraine, Melinda Simmons, has posted a picture from Cornwall of people celebrating Christmas with Ukrainian flags, commenting: “Pretty amazing to see how strong support for Ukraine remains in the UK after nearly a year of the Russian invasion.”

Dmytro Zhyvytskyi, governor of Sumy oblast, has said on Telegram that the night passed without incident in his region, which borders Russia.

Kyrylo Budanov says he expects fighting to be ‘hottest’ in March, with a Ukraine counter attack in the spring. This blog is now closed

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The city administration in Kyiv has said that 160 million passengers used the city’s subway in 2022, compared with 319 million passengers the previous year. It also said that about 5.200 people used the network for shelter on New Year’s Eve. In a statement posted to Telegram, the city authority said:

On new year’s eve, during the air raid, about 5,200 people, including almost 400 children, used underground stations as shelter. The subway infrastructure operates 24/7 as a shelter and provides the most necessary conditions: drinking water, sanitary facilities and the possibility of recharging gadgets.

About 200 people laid roses and wreaths in a central square in the city of Samara, where some vowed to ‘avenge’ the victims

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Mourners have voiced grief and anger at a rare public commemoration in Russia for the scores of soldiers killed on New Year’s Eve.

Admitting its worst military losses from a single Ukrainian attack, Russia on Tuesday said 89 servicemen were killed when a temporary deployment point was struck in Makiivka, a town in the eastern region of Donetsk partially held by separatists since 2014.