Artillery fire was heard on both sides of the front in Bakhmout, the epicenter of the fighting in eastern Ukraine during the first hour of the truce announced by Russia.
AFP “journalists heard both outgoing and incoming shelling in the frontline city of Bakhmut” right after noon, local time, when the cease-fire was supposed to begin, AFP reported.
Air raid sirens have been blasting throughout Ukraine, and Ukrainian officials also reported Russian missile strikes in the city of Kramatorsk, about 30 kilometers away from the front line, shortly after the truce. Kyrylo Tymoshenko, deputy head of the Ukrainian presidential office, said on Telegram that “rockets hit the city twice.” No victims were found.
On Thursday Russian President Vladimir Putin had ordered his troops to observe a 36-hours cease-fire “along the entire line of contact between the parties in Ukraine” for Russian Orthodox Christmas lasting from noon on January 6, 2023 until midnight on January 8, 2023. While Russians celebrate Christmas this weekend, Ukrainians can do it both on December 25 following the Gregorian calendar, or on January 7 according to the Julian calendar.
The announcement was immediately dismissed by Kyiv, with President Volodymyr Zelenskyy calling it a “cover to at least briefly stop the advance” of Ukraine’s forces in occupied Donbas in his daily address.
A Russian military spokesman said on Friday that Ukraine kept shelling Russian troops after the truce was supposed to take place, according to state-run outlet TASS.