Kyiv/Kramatorsk - Artillery fire could be heard from the front line in Ukraine on Friday, even after the official start of a unilateral ceasefire declared by Moscow and rejected by Kyiv.
Ukraine dismissed the 36-hour ceasefire ordered by Russia as a trick and said that the leaders of the United States and Germany were sending armoured fighting vehicles in a boost for the Kyiv government.
Zelenskyy in his nightly video address said, “Now they want to use Christmas as a cover to stop the advance of our guys in the Donbas for a while and bring equipment, ammunition and mobilized people closer to our positions. What will it give? Just another increase in the count of losses.”
Ukraine’s National Security Council chief Oleksiy Danilov told Ukrainian TV: “We will not negotiate any truces with them.”
U.S. President Joe Biden ridiculed the proposal saying it was “interesting” that Putin was ready to bomb hospitals, nurseries and churches on Christmas and New Year’s. “I think he’s trying to find some oxygen,” he said, without elaborating.
Meanwhile the U.S. is set to announce a weapons package on Friday, expected to include about 50 Bradley Fighting Vehicles as part of security assistance totalling about $2.8 billion, U.S. officials said.
"Right now the war in Ukraine is at a critical point," U.S. President Joe Biden told reporters. "We have to do everything we can to help the Ukrainians resist Russian aggression."
Germany would provide Marder Infantry Fighting Vehicles, according to a joint statement on Thursday from Biden and Chancellor Olaf Scholz.
Both countries agreed to train Ukrainian soldiers on how to use them, it said. Germany would also supply a Patriot air defence battery to Ukraine, which has scored some battlefield successes since Russian forces invaded last February but has asked allies for heavier weapons.
In the latest fighting, Kyrylo Tymoshenko, deputy head of the Ukrainian presidential office, said Thursday that Russian shelling killed at least five civilians and wounded eight in the previous 24 hours.
A woman sits in a boat crossing the Siverskyi-Donets river near Staryi-Saltiv, Kharkiv region on Wednesday Jan. 4, 2023, transporting the coffin containing her deceased son, a soldier who was killed in fighting with Russians. (AP Photo/Erik Marmor)
An intense battle has left 60% of the eastern city of Bakhmut in ruins, Donetsk Gov. Pavlo Kyrylenko said. Ukrainian defenders appear to be holding the Russians back. Taking the city in the Donbas region, an expansive industrial area bordering Russia, would not only give Putin a major battlefield gain after months of setbacks but rupture Ukraine’s supply lines and allow Moscow’s forces to press toward key Ukrainian strongholds in Donetsk.
-AP/Reuters