He will never have been respected.
A unilateral ceasefire declared by Russia in Ukraine on the occasion of Orthodox Christmas is supposed to have started Friday at noon (Moscow time).
But fighting continued in several regions, notably on both sides of the front in Bakhmout, and in Kramatorsk.
Russia claims to respect its truce but accuses kyiv of continuing the bombardments.
Shots on the Ukrainian side and on the Russian side were heard after the start of the ceasefire in Bakhmout, this city with largely destroyed and deserted streets, but their intensity was less compared to the previous days, according to AFP.
Other fights are reported by the Russian agency Tass or by local media.
However, this information should be taken with caution.
Following a call from Russian Orthodox Patriarch Kirill, but also a proposal from Turkish Head of State Recep Tayyip Erdogan, Russian President Vladimir Putin had asked his army on Thursday to observe a "ceasefire along the entire line of contact between the parties from noon (09:00 GMT) on 6 January this year until midnight (21:00 GMT) on 7 January”.
A truce in which Ukraine has never believed.
kyiv swept aside this initiative, denouncing an “act of propaganda”.
According to President Volodymyr Zelensky, this is an “apology with the aim of at least stopping the advance of our troops into the Donbass and bringing equipment, ammunition, and bringing men closer to our positions”.
“Russia must leave the occupied territories, only then will there be a temporary truce.
Keep your hypocrisy”, also reacted on Twitter an adviser to the Ukrainian presidency, Mykhaïlo Podoliak.
Vladimir Putin had called on the Ukrainian forces to respect this two-day truce in order to give the possibility to the Orthodox, the majority confession in Ukraine as in Russia, to “attend services on Christmas Eve, as well as on Nativity Day. of Christ”.
"Keep Your Hypocrisy"
In a message broadcast a few minutes after the announced start of the ceasefire, the deputy head of the Ukrainian presidential administration Kyrylo Tymoshenko reported a Russian bombardment on Kherson, which caused casualties.
However, he did not specify when the strike took place.
Separatist authorities in eastern Ukraine, quoted by Russian news agencies, meanwhile reported the shelling of their stronghold of Donetsk by the Ukrainian army 15 minutes before the theoretical entry into force of the ceasefire -fire.
For the American president, Vladimir Putin sought "to give himself some air".
He “was ready to bomb hospitals, nurseries and churches (…) on December 25 and on New Year’s Eve,” joked Joe Biden.
Such a truce will bring "neither freedom nor security" in Ukraine, abounded the German diplomacy.
Russia ready for 'serious dialogue'
In his telephone conversation with Vladimir Putin, Recep Erdogan had proposed a “unilateral ceasefire” intended to support “appeals for peace and negotiations between Moscow and kyiv”.
Russia is ready for a "serious dialogue" with Ukraine provided that the latter complies with Russian demands and accepts the "new territorial realities" born of the invasion of this country in February, argued Vladimir Putin.
Read alsoCeasefire in Ukraine, possible negotiations: should we believe Putin?
But Volodymyr Zelensky insists on a total withdrawal of Russian forces from his country, Crimea included, before any dialogue with Moscow.
Otherwise, he promises to take back the occupied territories by force.
The Russian truce is being offered less than a week after a Ukrainian strike on New Year's Eve left at least 89 people dead in Makivka, eastern Ukraine.
A particularly deadly bombardment that the Russian army had to recognize, an extremely rare fact, and which aroused criticism in Russia against the military command.
