Hostilities resumed on Sunday in Ukraine after the Orthodox Christmas truce decreed without convincing by Vladimir Putin, at the end of which Moscow claimed to have avenged its losses by killing hundreds in one strike, which kyiv immediately denied. .
In the Sumy region alone, in northeastern Ukraine, the local administration reported in the early evening of more than a hundred bombardments and strikes during the day on Sunday. “The Russian army carried out 144 strikes during the day”, in particular on the localities of Esmansk, Novoslobid, Myropil, Bilopol and Khotyn which were “under fire”, wrote the head of the regional administration Dmytro Zhivitskiï on the Telegram social network.
In Esmansk in particular, the Russian army struck with mortars, multiple Grad rocket launchers and heavy artillery, destroying four houses, a school and a communal hall. However, there were no casualties in the region, according to the same source.
The main information:
– After the truce of the Orthodox Christmas, the bombardments resumed between Russia and Ukraine. “The Russian army carried out 144 strikes during the day”, in particular on the localities of Esmansk, Novoslobid, Myropil, Bilopol and Khotyn which were “under fire”, wrote the head of the regional administration Dmytro Zhivitskiï on the Telegram social network.
– On Sunday morning, Ukrainian authorities said two people had been killed and nine others injured in the previous 24 hours in the country. In Kramatorsk, a city in the east of the country, AFP journalists had heard at least four explosions on Saturday before midnight.
– Russia – an extremely rare occurrence – has recognized significant losses, with 89 soldiers killed.
– Pro-Russian separatists claim control of a village near the town of Bakhmout, the current epicenter of fighting that Moscow forces have sought to capture for several months.
– Two people were killed after a Russian airstrike hit a market in the village of Shevchenkove in northeastern Ukraine.
Two dead and six injured after Russian bombardment targets a market
At least two people were killed in a Russian airstrike that hit a market in the village of Shevchenkove in northeast Ukraine on Monday, local authorities said, as fighting continued in the east. “Six people were injured in a rocket attack on Shevchenkove. Two others died,” Kharkiv region governor Oleg Synegoubov said on Telegram, posting photos of firefighters in rubble and stalls on fire. In Kherson, in the south, Governor Yaroslav Yanushevich reported one dead and one injured in a Russian bombardment that hit a residential area.
In the east, Russian troops carried out a “massive bombardment” on Kurakhivka, which injured at least two people and damaged around 20 houses, according to Governor Pavlo Kyrylenko. According to the Ukrainian presidency, two people have died and ten have been injured in the past 24 hours across the country. The Ukrainian army has for its part confirmed that Bakhmout, a city in eastern Ukraine, remains the “hottest point on the front”, where “fierce fighting takes place”. “The enemy has concentrated the maximum of combat-ready forces there, including Wagner’s units”, a paramilitary group whose mercenaries fight alongside Russian troops, said Sergiï Tcherevaty, spokesman for the Eastern Command of the army. .
On Sunday, Ukrainian Deputy Defense Minister Ganna Maliar also reported a “very difficult” situation in Soledar, 15 kilometers northeast of Bakhmout. According to Ukrainian intelligence, Russia is preparing to launch new attacks on the country’s energy system, as temperatures have dropped. These fights come after a unilateral 36-hour ceasefire decreed by Russian President Vladimir Putin on the occasion of Orthodox Christmas on Friday and Saturday. Hostilities had however continued during this truce, but of a lesser intensity.
Control of a village claimed by pro-Russian separatists
Pro-Russian separatists in eastern Ukraine’s Donetsk region claimed on Monday they had taken control of a village near the town of Bakhmout, the current epicenter of fighting Moscow forces are seeking to conquer for several months. The locality of Bakhmoutské, in the Donetsk region, “has been liberated by the Russian armed forces”, indicated the separatists of this region whose Moscow claims the annexation. AFP was unable to verify these independent source claims. In a statement posted on social media, the Wagner mercenary group, led by a businessman close to the Kremlin, claimed that this village had already been “liberated” by its men last month.
The village of Bakhmoutské is located northeast of Bakhmout, a town once known for its vineyards and salt mines and which had around 70,000 inhabitants before the start of the Russian offensive last February. It is now the hottest spot on the forehead. Russian forces, led in particular by mercenaries from the Wagner group, have been seeking to take Bakhmout for months, but they face fierce resistance from the Ukrainians. The two camps notably engaged in a ferocious artillery duel which reduced part of the city to ruins. Bakhmoutské is located right next to the town of Soledar, also the scene of heavy fighting.
In a separate statement, Wagner Group leader Yevgeny Prigozhin said the assault on Soledar was “exclusively” carried out by members of his organization. These statements illustrate the growing rivalry that exists, according to many analysts, between the Russian Ministry of Defense on the one hand and the Wagner group on the other.
Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky said in an address on Sunday evening that the area between Bakhmout and Soledar was “one of the bloodiest places on the front”. Russia claimed in September the annexation of the Donetsk region, as well as three other Ukrainian regions, following referendums not recognized by kyiv and the international community.
A fictitious ceasefire
After the end of the ceasefire on Saturday at midnight (21:00 GMT), the Ukrainian general staff had already identified more than fifty Russian attacks with missiles and rockets during the night. On Sunday morning, Ukrainian authorities said two people had been killed and nine others injured in the previous 24 hours in the country, despite a unilateral 36-hour ceasefire declared by Vladimir Putin from 10 a.m. Friday to midnight Saturday, Orthodox Christmas Day.
It was hardly respected, the Ukrainians accusing Moscow of having declared a fictitious ceasefire, and the Russians accusing them in return of having forced them to return fire. Westerners had denounced a “hypocrisy” of Moscow.
According to the deputy head of the Ukrainian presidential administration Kyrylo Tymoshenko, a civilian was killed in the Kharkiv region (north-east) and another in the Donetsk region (east). And nine people were injured in three regions.
In Kramatorsk, a city in the east of the country, AFP journalists had heard at least four explosions on Saturday before midnight. Local Ukrainian authorities said the town was hit by seven Russian rockets overnight. Two other rockets targeted the nearby town of Kostiantynivka.
On Sunday, the Russian army claimed, without specifying the date, to have carried out strikes on barracks in Kramatorsk, and inflicted heavy losses amounting to hundreds of deaths in “retaliation” to the extremely deadly Ukrainian bombardment on a building of the locality of Makiivka on New Year’s Eve.
Russia – extremely rare – had recognized significant losses, with 89 soldiers killed. But Russian war correspondents and the Ukrainian authorities had for their part reported hundreds of deaths in this building where mobilized reservists had been gathered.
Exchange of prisoners
These heavy losses among the reservists had aroused emotion in Russia, where the Kremlin decreed in the fall the mobilization of hundreds of thousands of men, and bitter criticism of the military command. They also occurred in a humiliating way when President Vladimir Putin appeared in the company of soldiers in a New Year’s message very vehement with regard to Ukraine and its Western allies.
“More than 600 Ukrainian soldiers were killed” in the strike on Kramatorsk, assured the Russian Ministry of Defense in a press release on Sunday, presenting it as a “retaliatory operation in response to the criminal strike of the kyiv regime in the first minutes of January 2023”.
Ukraine has denied any strikes on barracks in Kramatorsk, saying the Russian claim “does not correspond to the truth”. Earlier in the day, Pavlo Kirilenko, the head of the Ukrainian administration of the Donetsk region, claimed that the Russian strikes on the city had hit “an educational establishment, an industrial building and garages”, without making of victims.
It was not possible under the conditions of the conflict to immediately verify these claims. “The world has seen once again in recent days that Russia is lying even when it draws attention to the situation with its own announcements,” said Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky said Sunday evening in a video message, commenting on the progress of the ceasefire decreed by Moscow the previous two days.
He also welcomed the release Sunday of 50 Ukrainians by the Russians in favor of an exchange of prisoners, including 33 officers.