Ukraine updates: Russia strikes intensify, as ‘cease-fire’ ends

Ukrainian officials said on Sunday that a 50-year-old man was killed in Russian shelling in the northeastern region of Kharkiv on Saturday evening.

The news came shortly after Moscow ended a self-declared 36-hour cease-fire for the Orthodox Christmas holiday at midnight Moscow time (2100 GMT).

Fighting continued in several regions of Ukraine during the “cease-fire,” which was rejected by Kyiv as hypocrisy and a pretext for giving a respite to Russian troops.

Pavlo Kyrylenko, governor of the Donetsk region, said that there were nine Russian missile strikes on the region overnight, seven of which hit the city of Kramatorsk.

Ukrainian officials also reported blasts in other locations in Donbas, the eastern region where the front line of the war is located.  

Blasts were also heard in the southeastern city of Zaporizhzhia, the administrative center of the Zaporizhzhia region, a local official said. There was no immediate report on damage or casualties.

Russia said Ukraine shelled positions along the front line on Saturday, forcing its troops to return fire despite the declared truce.

As the “cease-fire” ended, Moscow said it would push on with its attack, which it describes as a “special military operation,” until it was victorious over its neighbor.

“The tasks set by the president (Vladimir Putin) for the special military operation will still be fulfilled,” the Russian state TASS agency quoted Putin’s first deputy chief of staff, Sergei Kiriyenko, as saying.

“And there definitely will be a victory,” he added.

The statement comes as the war, seen by Ukraine and its allies as an unprovoked land grab by Moscow, is in its 11th month.

The fighting has killed thousands, displaced millions both internally and externally and reduced several Ukrainian cities and villages to rubble.

Saving lives on Ukraine’s front lines

To view this video please enable JavaScript, and consider upgrading to a web browser that supports HTML5 video

Here are other related developments concerning the war in Ukraine on January 8:

Unilateral Russia cease-fire a failure: Zelenskyy

In a video message on Saturday night, Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy said the truce declared by Russian President Vladimir Putin had failed to bring any respite from fighting.

“The world could see once again how false statements from Moscow are at every level,” Zelenskyy said.

“They said something about a supposed cease-fire, but the reality is that Russian shells have again hit Bakhmut and other Ukrainian positions. Once again it has been confirmed: Only the expulsion of Russian occupiers from Ukrainian land and the elimination of all opportunities for Russia to exert pressure on Ukraine and all of Europe will mean the restoration of a cease-fire, security and peace,” he added.

Ukrainians don’t make much of ‘so-called ceasefire”: DW’s Emmanuelle Chaze

To view this video please enable JavaScript, and consider upgrading to a web browser that supports HTML5 video

Ukrainian shelling damages thermal power plants: Moscow-installed officials

Two thermal power plants in parts of the Donetsk region under Russian control have been damaged by Ukrainian shelling, according to officials answering to Moscow.

According to their Telegram monitoring channel, there were preliminary reports of injuries.

There has been no comment from Ukraine, which very seldom claims responsibility for attacks on Russian-controlled territory in Ukraine or within Russia itself.

tj/jcg (Reuters, dpa, AFP, AP)

Article source: https://www.dw.com/en/ukraine-updates-russia-strikes-intensify-as-cease-fire-ends/a-64316978?maca=en-rss-en-all-1573-rdf