Russian authorities on Friday denounced a Ukrainian attack on the eastern Ukrainian city of Donetsk, just at the beginning of the unilateral ceasefire decreed by Russian President Vladimir Putin on the occasion of Orthodox Christmas.
The Joint Center for Control and Coordination of War Crimes Issues of Ukraine (JCCC) said in a brief message on its Telegram account that the attack was perpetrated with artillery and added that «six 155-millimeter shells were fired», without giving information about possible casualties.
The unilateral ceasefire, rejected by Ukraine, came into force at 12.00 a.m. (10.00 a.m. in mainland Spain and the Balearic Islands), after Patriarch Kirill, the highest representative of this Church, requested it. Putin asked Kiev to also declare a cease-fire during this period, something rejected by Ukraine.
Ukrainian President Volodimir Zelenski has accused Putin of using the truce as a military strategy. «They want to use Christmas as a cover to stop, at least briefly, the advance of our men in the Donbas and bring equipment, ammunition and mobilized men closer to our positions,» he has reproached.
The war in Ukraine broke out on February 24 on the orders of the Russian president, who days earlier had recognized the independence of the self-proclaimed republics of Donetsk and Lugansk, located in the Donbas region and the scene of a conflict since 2014. Moscow announced in September the annexation of these two regions together with those of Kherson and Zaporiyia, all of them partially occupied.
Source: (EUROPA PRESS)
