Ukrainians and Russians celebrated Orthodox Christmas on Saturday in the midst of the war, hostilities continuing at several points on the front despite the unilateral announcement of a 36-hour ceasefire by Vladimir Putin, described as hypocrisy by kyiv and the Westerners.
Like the day before, the Russian army assured its intention to observe a truce until midnight Saturday, denouncing the continuation of Ukrainian artillery fire or attacks on its positions which forced it to retaliate.
Ukraine, for its part, questions the sincerity of the Russian truce, claiming that it is a ruse to gain time. Washington, Paris, London, Berlin and the EU lambasted the initiative.
An adviser to the Ukrainian presidency, Mykhaïlo Podoliak, once again rejected this Russian truce on Saturday, describing it as “fake”.
“Russia invaded and killed Ukrainians for 11 months, indignantly saying, ‘Why are you resisting?’ Russia unilaterally announces a true-false “ceasefire” along the entire front line, but continues to whine “Why doesn’t Ukraine support our false proposal?” “, he wrote in English on Twitter.
Journalists present in Chassiv Iar, in the east of Ukraine, have in fact observed sustained bombardments throughout the morning.
In Bakhmout, the epicenter of the fighting located further north, AFP had already heard artillery fire from both sides of the front on Friday, in the hours following the establishment of the unilateral ceasefire by Russia. .
However, these shots were of less intensity compared to the previous days.
According to the Ukrainian Prosecutor’s Office, two people were killed and 13 injured in Bakhmut on Friday, in a city largely destroyed by fighting and where both sides face heavy losses.
According to Ukrainian authorities, Russian troops also shelled the Kherson region (south) on Friday, killing a rescue worker and injuring seven other people.
Putin alone in the Kremlin
The two countries, at war since February 2022, celebrated the Orthodox Christmas holiday on Saturday, the majority faith in Russia and Ukraine. January 7 of the civil (Gregorian) calendar corresponds to December 25 of the old Julian calendar which the Orthodox Church continues to follow.
On the Russian side, Vladimir Putin attended a religious service alone in a Kremlin church at midnight on Friday, departing from his habit of attending the liturgy in public, in the provinces or on the outskirts of Moscow.
In a message released Saturday by the Kremlin, he sent his congratulations to Orthodox Christians.
Church organizations “support our soldiers” fighting in Ukraine, the Russian president said.
On the Ukrainian side, hundreds of faithful attended a historic liturgy on Saturday in the famous monastery of the Lavra of the Caves of kyiv, formerly under the jurisdiction of the Moscow Patriarchate but passed in December into the bosom of the Independent Ukrainian Church.
The office was led for the first time by Metropolitan Epiphany, the head of this Church which broke with the Moscow Patriarchate.
“We have waited a long time for this sanctuary to be handed over to us. It is a truly historic event, which all Ukrainians have been waiting for,” 19-year-old Veronika Martyniouk, who leads the choir, told AFP.
“Each country has its Church. And we have our own Church — that’s fine, a Ukrainian Church, that’s how it should be,” said Oksana Sobko, 47, a faithful.
Arms deliveries
In Chassiv Iar, near the front, local residents gathered in their basement rather than at the church at the end of the street for fear of shelling. There are only nine faithful left out of a congregation of a hundred people, who have fled the city.
“Thank God we got together, that’s it already,” said Zinaïda Artioukhina, 62, the only remaining member of the church choir.
Even if it had been respected, the ceasefire decreed by Vladimir Putin would have offered only 36 hours of respite in a high-intensity conflict, which has lasted for almost 11 months and whose settlement does not seem to have made progress. .
The United States, kyiv’s main backer, on Friday pledged massive $3 billion in new military aid to Ukraine, which will include the supply of Bradley armored infantry vehicles, personnel carriers and howitzers.
“This victorious year has only just begun”, welcomed the Ukrainian presidency, specifying that the American “package” also included Himars precision missiles and Sea Sparrow anti-aircraft missiles.
This announcement followed that of Germany, which indicated that it would send 40 “Marder” armored vehicles in the first quarter, following in the footsteps of France, which announced on Wednesday an upcoming delivery of AMX-10 RC light combat tanks.
Western arms supplies are crucial for kyiv and have notably enabled it to carry out an effective counter-offensive which has driven Russian forces from the Kharkiv region in the northeast and from the city of Kherson in the south.
With winter, the front is largely frozen. Ukraine, which promises to take back all its territories from Russia, has however said that it fears a new Russian offensive in the immediate future.