Russia’s forces have started a temporary ceasefire in Ukraine after it was unlilaterally ordered by Vladimir Putin to mark Orthodox Christmas – with Kyiv dismissing it as a ploy.
Air raid warnings sounded in several regions across Ukraine, including around the capital Kyiv, but no major air strikes were reported by Ukrainian officials after the ceasefire start time at Moscow-time (9am UK time). The pause is set to last for 36 hours.
Ukraine’s president Volodymyr Zelensky rejected Moscow’s calls for Kyiv to reciprocate the ceasefire, accusing Russia of wanting to halt his country’s military progress in eastern Ukraine. Moscow said Ukraine had shelled military positions in Russian-held areas including Luhansk, Donetsk and Zaporizhzhia just as the ceasefire began and that its forces returned fire to suppress the attacks. It was not entirely clear from the statement whether the attacks and return fire took place before or after the beginning of the ceasefire.
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Mr Zelensky said: "Now they want to use Christmas as a cover to stop the advance of our guys in the [eastern] Donbas [region] for a while and bring equipment, ammunition and mobilised people closer to our positions".
Speaking in Russian and not Ukrainian during his nightly address late on Thursday, Mr Zelensky said that ending the war meant "ending your country's aggression ... And the war will end either when your soldiers leave or we throw them out."
Moscow has not said what it will do if Ukraine keeps fighting during the unilateral ceasefire.
US president Joe Biden was also quick to dimiss Mr Putin’s order, saying that the Russian leader was ready to bomb “hospitals, nurseries and churches” on 25 December and on New Year’s Eve, other periods when Ukrainians celebrate, but was calling for a truce now. Russian forces had ramped up attacks on Ukraine over the Christmas period even though Mr Zelensky had called for respite.
“I found it interesting,” Mr Biden said. “He [Putin] was ready to bomb hospitals and nurseries and churches … on the 25th and New Year’s. I think he’s trying to find some oxygen.”
Analysts, including The Institute for the Study of War (ISW), have suggested the ceasefire is just a tactic to damage Ukraine’s reputation with Russians if they did not observe the temporary truce.
The ISW said: “[The] announcement that Russian forces will conduct a 36-hour ceasefire in observance of Russian Orthodox Christmas is likely an information operation intended to damage Ukraine’s reputation.
“[Mr] Putin cannot reasonably expect Ukraine to meet the terms of this suddenly declared ceasefire and may have called for the ceasefire to frame Ukraine as unaccommodating and unwilling to take the necessary steps toward negotiations.”
US state department spokesman Ned Price said Washington had "little faith in the intentions behind this announcement", saying Kremlin officials "have given us no reason to take anything that they offer at face value".
The truce order seems to be a ploy "to rest, refit, regroup, and ultimately re-attack", he said. Russia’s ambassador in Washington, Anatoly Antonov, responded on Facebook to the statements from the Biden administration, saying: “Washington is set on fighting with us ‘to the last Ukrainian’.”
Former Russian president Dmitry Medvedev, the deputy head of Russia's security council, said those who rejected Mr Putin's proposal for a Christmas truce are "clowns" and "pigs".
Fighting has been intense in eastern Ukraine in recent weeks and early on Friday morning, Ukrainian officials reported that Russian shells hit Kramatorsk, a Ukrainian city near the frontline in the industrial Donetsk region that Russia claims as its territory – illegally in the eyes of the international community.
"Kramatorsk is under fire. Stay in shelters," the city’s mayor Oleksandr Honcharenko posted on social media. He did not give details of damage.
Civilians on the streets of Kyiv appear not be holding out much hope that the Russian-ordered ceasefire will change anything.
"Everybody is preparing (for an attack) because everybody remembers what happened on the New Year when there were around 40 Shahed (Iranian drones)," local resident Vasyl Kuzmenko told the Associated Press. "But everything is possible."
Reuters and the Associated Press contributed to this report
