Vladimir Putin, the President of Russia, had issued an arbitrary order for his forces to cease hostilities for the duration of the Orthodox Christmas holiday, which is 36 hours.
Despite the fact that Ukrainian forces were engaging in artillery fire during the ceasefire in Ukraine to celebrate Orthodox Christmas, Moscow asserted on Saturday that its army was honouring the truce.
“Despite the shelling of settlements and Russian positions by the military forces of Ukraine, the execution of the proclaimed ceasefire will be sustained,” the Russian defence ministry stated in a statement. “The implementation of the declared ceasefire will be continued.”
The statement did however add that Russian forces had successfully resisted a number of attacks by the Ukrainian army in eastern Ukraine over the past twenty-four hours and had killed scores of its personnel in that region.
On Saturday, intense artillery fire could be heard by AFP journalists working in the town of Chasiv Yar, which is located to the south of the city of Bakhmut and is close to the battle lines.
Russia is accused of launching one missile attack and firing 20 rounds from multiple rocket launchers over the past 24 hours, according to a statement released by the general command of the Ukrainian armed forces on Saturday.
Vladimir Putin, the President of Russia, had issued an arbitrary order for his forces to cease hostilities for the duration of the Orthodox Christmas holiday, which is 36 hours.
Following a string of defeats on the battlefield, Ukraine has speculated that Russia is using the halt, which is scheduled to continue until the end of Saturday at 2100 GMT, as a strategy to buy itself more time to reorganize its forces and strengthen its defenses.
Christmas is celebrated by Orthodox Christians on the 7th of January.