(Kyiv) Two people were killed and nine wounded in Ukraine in the past 24 hours, Ukrainian officials said Sunday, despite Vladimir Putin declaring a unilateral ceasefire that ended at midnight.
According to Kyrylo Tymoshenko, deputy head of the Ukrainian presidential administration, one citizen was killed in Kharkiv region (northeast), another in Donetsk region (east) and nine people were injured in three regions.
Hostilities continued on Friday and Saturday, though less intense than in previous days, during the conflict, which was unilaterally instituted by Russia during the Orthodox Christmas season.
After the end of the ceasefire, the Ukrainian General Staff recorded more than fifty Russian missile and rocket attacks in several parts of Ukraine during the night.
Ukrainian Deputy Defense Minister Khanna Maliar reported a “difficult” situation in the east, where most of the fighting is concentrated, acknowledging that Russian troops were “advancing in some areas” but saying that Kiev’s forces were advancing elsewhere. step by step”.
According to him, the situation is particularly “very difficult”, a town located near Bakhmout, the hot spot before, AFP noted the artillery clashes on Friday after the theoretical entry into the ceasefire practice.-Russian fire.
Photo by CLODAGH KILCOYNE, REUTERS
Ukrainian Deputy Minister of Defense, the situation is particularly “very difficult”, Soledar, a town located near Bakhmout, AFP noted artillery clashes on Friday after the ceasefire came into force – Russian fire.
The strikes were “retaliatory” by Moscow
The Russian military said Sunday it carried out attacks on military bases in Kramatorsk in eastern Ukraine, inflicting heavy losses on its enemy in “retaliation” for a Ukrainian bombing of Makhivika that killed at least 89 Russian soldiers in the New Year.
A Ukrainian military official denied this.
“In response to the criminal strike by the Kiev regime in the first minutes of January 2023 […]”Russian forces launched a retaliatory operation,” the Russian Defense Ministry said in its daily statement, saying it had hit two camps.
Russian Defense Ministry spokesman Igor Konashenkov said in a video that more than 600 Ukrainian soldiers were killed.
The ministry did not specify the exact date of the strike.
Ukraine has denied any attack on barracks in Kramatorsk, saying Russia’s claim “does not correspond to the truth”.
“Russian troops do not have the ability to deliver high-precision strikes,” the spokesman for the “Eastern” command of the Ukrainian army, Serkhiy Tserevaty, told the media, condemning the Russian “contact operation” in the Ukrainian face. successes.
Local Ukrainian officials said Kramatorsk was hit by seven rockets overnight. Two other rockets targeted the nearby town of Kostiantynivka.
Photo by CLODAGH KILCOYNE, REUTERS
Smoke rose from artillery firefights in Soledar on Friday, after the Russian ceasefire took effect.
On Saturday, AFP journalists in Kramatorsk heard at least four explosions just before midnight.
The Russian military launched the strike in retaliation for an attack on Makhivka, a pro-Russian separatist region in eastern Ukraine, minutes after the start of the new year.
The Ukrainian military targeted a makeshift deployment point for Russian soldiers, killing at least 89 soldiers, according to a statement issued by Moscow, and several more, according to Russian sources and Kiev.
