Russia resumes Ukraine attacks after Christmas ‘cease-fire’
At least two people were killed in eastern Ukraine overnight as Russia resumed bombing after ending its brief reputed cease-fire, according to reports Sunday.
Invading Russian President Vladimir Putin had supposedly ordered the 36-hour truce for Russian troops beginning Thursday and lasting through Ukraine’s Orthodox Christmas Saturday, although Kremlin missiles continued to hit Ukrainian territory.
Ukraine had rejected the cease-fire, calling it “hypocrisy,” saying that if Russian forces were seeking a delay in the fighting, they should just retreat.
Ukrainian officials said a 50-year-old man was killed in Kharkiv and a person died in Soledar in the eastern Donetsk region in overnight attacks, according to reports.
Even with the supposed previous pause in fighting on the Russian side, Kremlin missiles continued to pound eastern Ukraine on Saturday, killing at least three people and injuring scores more, reports said.
Meanwhile, Russia said Sunday it will press ahead with what Putin has characterized as the “special military operation” he launched against Ukraine Feb. 24, 2022.
“The tasks set by the president [Putin] for the special military operation will still be fulfilled,” Putin’s first deputy chief of staff, Sergei Kiriyenko, said, according to the Russian state mouthpiece Tass.
Kiriyenko accused Ukrainian forces of violating the Christmas truce in the eastern part of the country.
“That’s what I have seen in Donbass,” he said. “And the attempts to strike with drones during the night when a Christmas service was being held in Sevastopol, in the Kherson Region, and in the Zaporozhye Region.”
With Post wires
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