Moscow said it would step up a “special military operation” in Ukraine.
Moscow:
An overnight Russian bombing of areas in eastern Ukraine left at least one person dead, local officials said Sunday, after Moscow ended a Christmas truce. declared himself and vowed to continue fighting until victory was won over the neighboring country.
President Vladimir Putin on Friday ordered a 36-hour ceasefire along the line of contact to celebrate Russian and Ukrainian Orthodox Christmas, which falls on Saturday. Ukraine has rejected the truce, and there has been shelling along the front lines.
A 50-year-old man has died in the northeastern region of Kharkiv as a result of Russian shelling, Oleh Sinehubov, the region’s governor, said on messaging app Telegram. The news arrived minutes after midnight in Moscow.
Most Ukrainian Orthodox Christians have traditionally celebrated Christmas on January 7, as do Orthodox Christians in Russia. But this year, the Ukrainian Orthodox Church, the largest in the country, also allowed celebrations on December 25. Many people, however, still observe the holiday on Saturday, flocking to the churches. and sanctuary.
The Kremlin has said Moscow will push for what it calls a “special military operation” in Ukraine and what Kiev and its Western allies call unprovoked aggression to seize land.
“The tasks set by the president (Putin) for the special military operation will still be fulfilled,” the state-run TASS news agency quoted Putin’s first deputy chief of staff, Sergei Kiriyenko, as saying. said.
“And there will be a victory for sure.”
The war is still far from over, now in its 11th month, it has killed thousands, displaced millions and turned Ukraine’s cities into ruins.
Ukrainian officials also reported explosions in areas that make up the greater Donbas region – the frontline of the war where fighting has raged for months.
Pavlo Kyrylenko, governor of Ukraine’s Donetsk region, said there were nine rocket attacks on the region overnight, including seven on the heavily damaged city of Kramatorsk. According to preliminary information, there were no casualties.
Explosions were also heard in the city of Zaporizhzhia, the administrative center of the Zaporizhzhia region, a local official said, without giving any immediate reports of damage or casualties.
Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskiy said on Wednesday that Russia was planning a new major offensive. The Pentagon said on Friday that Putin’s goal of capturing Ukrainian territory has not changed, even as his troops continue to suffer.
There are growing concerns that Belarus – a staunch supporter of Moscow – could be used as a springboard to attack Ukraine from the north after increasing military activity in the country and transferring new Russian troops to Ukraine. there.
The unofficial Telegram channels that monitor military activity in Belarus reported late on Saturday that between 1,400-1,600 Russian soldiers had arrived from Russia in the northeastern Belarusian city of Vitebsk in the past two days.
Reuters was unable to independently verify the information.
(Except for the title, this story has not been edited by NDTV staff and is published from an aggregated feed.)
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