MOSCOW – Russian forces attacked the eastern Ukrainian city of Kramatorsk on Friday, according to the deputy head of Ukraine’s presidential administration, following the alleged start of a unilateral Russian cease-fire.
“The occupiers hit the city twice with rockets,” Kyrylo Tymoshenko said on social media, adding that a residential building was hit but no one was hurt.
According to Russian state television, a unilateral Russian cease-fire ordered by President Vladimir Putin has gone into effect along the entire front as of noon Moscow time.
“The cease-fire regime went into effect on the entire contact line at noon today,” Russia’s state-run First Channel reported. “It will run until the 7th of January.”
The impact of Russian President Vladimir Putin’s order for his forces in Ukraine to observe a unilateral, 36-hour cease-fire was called into question Friday after Kyiv officials dismissed the move as a ploy but did not say whether Ukrainian troops would follow suit.
Moscow also did not say whether it would retaliate if Ukraine continued to fight.
The Russian-declared cease-fire in the nearly 11-month war was set to begin at noon Friday and last until midnight Saturday in Moscow time.
The announcement by Putin on Thursday that the Kremlin’s troops would cease fighting along the 1100 km front line or elsewhere was unexpected. It came after the Russian Orthodox Church’s leader, Patriarch Kirill, proposed a cease-fire for the Orthodox Christmas holiday this weekend. The Julian calendar is used by the Orthodox Church, which celebrates Christmas on January 7.
However, Ukrainian and Western officials suspected Putin’s apparent goodwill gesture had a hidden agenda.
Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky questioned the Kremlin’s intentions, accusing it of planning the cease-fire “to resume the war with renewed vigor.”
“Now they want to use Christmas as a cover to temporarily halt our advance in the (eastern) Donbas (region) and bring equipment, ammunition, and mobilized people closer to our positions,” Zelensky said late Thursday.
He did not, however, state categorically that Kyiv would disregard Putin’s request.
US Vice President Joe Biden echoed Zelensky’s concerns, saying it was “interesting” that Putin was prepared to bomb hospitals, nursing homes, and churches on Christmas and New Year’s Eve.
“I think (Putin) is trying to find some oxygen,” Biden said, without going into further detail.
Washington has “little faith in the intentions behind this announcement,” according to State Department spokesman Ned Price, adding that Kremlin officials “have given us no reason to take anything they offer at face value.”
The cease-fire order appears to be a ploy “to rest, refit, regroup, and eventually re-attack,” he said.
According to the Institute for the Study of War, the truce could be a ruse to allow Russia to regroup.
“Such a pause would benefit Russian troops disproportionately and begin to deprive Ukraine of the initiative,” the think tank said late Thursday.
“Putin cannot reasonably expect Ukraine to meet the terms of this unexpectedly declared cease-fire, and he may have called for the cease-fire to portray Ukraine as unaccommodating and unwilling to take the necessary steps toward negotiations.”
Source: Reuters