Russian troops did not observe their own “Christmas ceasefire,” continuing to shell and attack Ukrainian positions, the head of the Luhansk Regional Military Administration, Serhiy Haidai, said, Radio Svoboda reported.
“As it was”
“Where there was shelling, it continues; where there were attempts to attack our positions, they continue,” Haidai told Radio Svoboda’s Donbas Realities project on January 6, 2023, after the truce was due to begin. He said Ukraine’s General Staff would announce the number of attacks.
Haidai said Russia’s aim was likely to secure an operational pause and to create propaganda portraying Ukraine as treacherous for fighting on a major religious holiday.
Putin’s order
On January 5, Vladimir Putin ordered Defence Minister Sergei Shoigu to introduce a ceasefire along the entire front from noon on January 6 to midnight on January 7, for Orthodox Christmas.
President Volodymyr Zelenskyy called the ceasefire hypocrisy, saying Russia wanted to use it to prepare to continue the war. US President Joe Biden said Putin was trying to “find some oxygen.” Ukraine’s National Security and Defence Council Secretary Oleksiy Danilov called it “lies and hypocrisy.”
The full extent of damage over the holiday was still being assessed.
Sources
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