Moscow’s unilateral ceasefire ends as the bombing continues

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Issued on: 08/01/2023 – 9:12 AM Modified: 08/2023 – 16:36

At least two people were killed by Russian bombs overnight in eastern Ukraine, according to local officials, as fighting continued into the weekend despite Russian claims of an Orthodox Christmas truce. Follow our live blog to see how the day’s events unfold. All times are in Paris time (GMT+1).

4:20 pm: No signs of casualties at site of strikes, Russia says it has killed hundreds of Ukrainian soldiers

Hours after Russia announced a missile attack on the Ukrainian city of Kramatorsk that killed 600 Ukrainian soldiers, a Reuters witness said on Sunday that the attack caused damage but did not destroy buildings and there were no clear signs of casualties.

Reuters journalists visited two university dormitories that the Russian Defense Ministry said were temporarily housing Ukrainian soldiers near the front line of the war in the city of Donbass at the time of the night strike. Neither of them appears to have been directly hit by a missile, nor was it severely damaged. There were no visible signs that the soldiers were living there and there were no signs of dead bodies or traces of blood.

The authorities in Kyiv did not immediately comment on the strike or on Russia’s claims of hundreds of casualties. The mayor of Kramatorsk said earlier that there were no injuries.

3:45 p.m.: Moscow, Kyiv say 100 prisoners of war will be released in a prisoner exchange deal

On Sunday, the Russian Defense Ministry said that Ukraine had returned 50 captured Russian soldiers, after negotiations. Ukraine confirmed the information and said that Russia had released 50 Ukrainian servicemen under the same agreement.

Russia said the freed soldiers would be flown to Moscow for medical and psychological rehabilitation.

“On January 8, as a result of negotiations, 50 Russian military personnel, who were in mortal danger while in captivity, were returned from the territory controlled by the Kyiv regime,” the Defense Ministry said in a statement.

1:55 p.m.: Russia strikes Kramatorsk in ‘retaliatory strike’ for Makeyevka attack, ministry says

Moscow said on Sunday its military had launched a “retaliatory strike” in the eastern city of Kramatrosk to avenge the killing of 89 Russian servicemen in Makeyevka.

The Russian Defense Ministry said in a statement that could not be immediately verified that “more than 600 Ukrainian soldiers were killed” as a result of the attack on Kyiv soldiers stationed in two buildings in Kramatorsk.

11:47 am: At least two people were killed in Russian bombing in eastern Ukraine

Kyiv said on Sunday that two Ukrainians were killed and nine wounded, despite Russian President Vladimir Putin saying he had unilaterally ordered his forces to stop attacks over Orthodox Christmas.

As a result of “Russian armed aggression,” one person was killed and eight others were injured in the eastern Donetsk region in the past 24 hours, Kyrylo Tymoshenko, deputy chief of the Ukrainian president’s office, said on Sunday.

Tymoshenko said that another person was killed in the northeastern Kharkiv region and another wounded in the southern Kherson region during the same period.

“Despite the so-called ceasefire declared by the Russian occupiers, over the past day the enemy launched nine missiles, three air strikes and launched 40 attacks from several missile launchers,” the Ukrainian Defense Ministry said in a separate statement.

9:42 a.m.: A brief respite in war-torn eastern Ukraine as fighting continues

War-ravaged cities in eastern Ukraine saw no major lull in fighting overnight from Saturday to Sunday.

“There’s still a lot of fighting going on, even if the lines are mostly static,” says Luke Shrago, France 24’s correspondent in Kharkiv. “The question people ask is: ‘When exactly will the next attack happen?'” “

04:07 © France 24 8:24 am: Ukraine bombing destroys two power plants in Russian-controlled parts of Donetsk, local officials say

Moscow officials and Russia’s Tass news agency said on Sunday that two thermal power plants in a part of Ukraine’s Donetsk region controlled by Russian forces were damaged in a missile attack by the Ukrainian military.

Officials said on their Telegram channel that early information indicated that plants in Zuhres and Novyi Svit had been hit and that some people at the site had been injured.

TASS reports that two people may be trapped under the rubble at the damaged Starobesheve power plant in Novi Svet. It said, citing officials, that the strike was carried out using a multiple launch rocket system.

There was no immediate comment from Ukraine, which has never publicly claimed responsibility for attacks inside Russia or on Russian-controlled territory in Ukraine.

3:03 am: Moscow ends unilaterally declared cease-fire, vows to move forward on Ukraine

President Vladimir Putin on Friday ordered a 36-hour ceasefire along the contact line to celebrate Christmas in Russia and Orthodox Ukraine, which fell on Saturday. Ukraine rejected the armistice as a ploy to allow Russia to regroup.

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

Most Ukrainian Orthodox Christians have traditionally celebrated Christmas on January 7, as have Orthodox Christians in Russia. But this year, the Orthodox Church of Ukraine, the largest church in the country, allowed a celebration on December 25th. Nevertheless, many celebrated the holiday on Saturday, flocking to churches and cathedrals.

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(FRANCE 24 with AFP, The Associated Press and Reuters)

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