Moscow: Moscow said on Sunday its army conducted a “retaliatory strike” in the eastern Ukrainian city of Kramatrosk to avenge the deaths of 89 Russian troops killed in Makiivka.
“More than 600 Ukrainian servicemen were killed” as a result of a strike on Kyiv troops stationed in two buildings in Kramatorsk, the Russian defence ministry said in a statement, as per AFP. However, AFP could not immediately verify the report.
Two Ukrainians were killed and another nine were wounded despite Russian leader Vladimir Putin saying he had unilaterally ordered his forces to pause attacks during Orthodox Christmas, Kyiv said on Sunday.
As a result of “Russia’s armed aggression”, one person was killed and another eight wounded in the eastern region of Donetsk over the past 24 hours, Kyrylo Tymoshenko, deputy head of the Ukrainian president’s office, said on Sunday.
One more person was killed in the northeastern region of Kharkiv and another was wounded in the southern region of Kherson over the same period, Tymoshenko said.
“Despite the so-called ‘ceasefire’ declared by the Russian occupiers, over the past day the enemy launched nine missile and three air strikes and fired 40 attacks from multiple rocket launchers,” Ukraine’s defence ministry said in a separate statement.
War-scarred cities in eastern Ukraine saw no significant let-up in the fighting overnight Saturday to Sunday.
“A lot of fighting is still ongoing, even if the lines are mostly static,” says FRANCE 24’s Luke Shrago, reporting from Kharkiv. “The question people are asking is: ‘When exactly is the next offensive going to take place?’”
Two thermal power plants in a part of Ukraine’s Donetsk region controlled by Russian forces were damaged in a rocket attack by the Ukrainian army, Moscow-installed officials and Russia’s state TASS news agency said on Sunday.
Early information suggested that the plants in Zuhres and Novyi Svit had been hit and that some people on the spot had sustained injuries, the officials said on their Telegram channels.
Two people might be trapped under debris at the damaged Starobesheve power plant in Novyi Svit, TASS reported. Citing officials, it said the strike was carried out using a multiple rocket launcher system.
There was no immediate comment from Ukraine, which never publicly claims responsibility for attacks inside Russia or on Russian-controlled territory in Ukraine.
President Vladimir Putin ordered on Friday a 36-hour ceasefire along the line of contact to observe Russia and Ukraine’s Orthodox Christmas, which fell on Saturday. Ukraine rejected the truce as a ploy to allow Russia to regroup its forces.