To Little Surprise, Not Even Russian Troops Are Respecting Putin's Ceasefire

Ukraine was understandably skeptical about Putin's motives for a ceasefire - let alone his sincerity - especially given the reality that Ukraine is perceived to be winning. 

Russian forces seemed similarly unimpressed with the concept. JL 

Megan Specia reports in the New York Times:

A unilateral Russian cease-fire announced for Friday appeared to have little effect. Moscow claimed it was defending itself against continuing Ukrainian strikes. Ukraine - which had not agreed to the cease-fire - reported continued Russian attacks. Residents in Bakhmut said the sounds of fighting continued and that nothing had changed in the area despite the purported pause. “Everyone in the world knows how the Kremlin uses lulls in the war to continue the war with new force.” The 36-hour cease-fire was to begin at noon local time on Friday. Less than an hour later, an air-raid alert was issued for all of Ukraine.

A unilateral Russian cease-fire announced for Friday appeared to have little effect in its early hours.

Moscow claimed it was defending itself against continuing Ukrainian strikes. Ukraine — which had not agreed to the cease-fire — reported continued Russian attacks, though it was unclear if they were before or after the pause was to begin.

Residents in Bakhmut, in the eastern Donbas region, said that the sounds of fighting continued on Friday and that nothing had changed in the area despite the purported pause.

The Ukrainian authorities have criticized the Russian announcement of a cease-fire as a bluff, with President Volodymyr Zelensky saying in his overnight address that the government in Moscow “wants to use Christmas as a cover” to pause Ukrainian advances and reposition troops and ammunition.

“Everyone in the world knows how the Kremlin uses lulls in the war to continue the war with new force,” he added, and he addressed the Russian people directly, speaking of those who “sent all of your people to be slaughtered” and “do not strive for peace.”

The proposed unilateral 36-hour cease-fire was set to begin at noon local time on Friday. Less than an hour later, an air-raid alert was issued for all of Ukraine. Though it ended within a couple of hours, such alarms are disruptive even when sounded as a precaution and no actual strikes follow.

Analysts have said that the Kremlin’s order for the cease-fire could be an attempt to buy some time for Russian forces to regroup before relaunching offensive operations on the front lines in eastern Ukraine. They have also said that the move might also be part of a broader initiative to garner support at home. Russia’s defense ministry said that Ukrainian forces had fired on Russian positions in the Donetsk, Luhansk and Zaporizhzhia regions, and that Russian forces returned fire. Ukrainian officials did not immediately respond to those claims.

In the hours leading up to the time the cease-fire was to begin, Russia’s frontline attacks showed no signs of abating.

In the city of Kherson, in southern Ukraine, Russian forces shelled a fire station on Friday morning, killing at least one person, according to local officials. Russian forces have been relentlessly bombarding the area since they were forced to retreat from Kherson in November.

Ukraine’s State Emergency Services shared photographs of the aftermath of the attack, including an image of the body of a firefighter covered with a tarp, the person’s uniform visible under the covering. A number of emergency response vehicles were also damaged. Local officials said that six people were killed and four others wounded in attacks in the region the previous day.

Kyrylo Tymoshenko, the deputy head of the Ukrainian president’s office, posted an image of what appeared to be the bloodied hand of a firefighter on his Telegram account.

“They talk about a ‘cease-fire,’” Mr. Tymoshenko wrote. “This is beyond the understanding of any civilized act.”

“Assassins, terrorists and bloodthirsty people,” he said. “This is who we are at war with.”

Shortly after the cease-fire was scheduled to take hold, Mr. Tymoshenko said that a residential area had been hit in a Russian attack on the city of Kramatorsk in eastern Ukraine, and that in the town of Kurakhove, in the Donetsk region, Russian shells hit apartment buildings and a hospital. A hospital employee was injured, he said. The exact timing of the strikes was unclear.