Like every day, artillery fire resounds with a crash on each side of the fronts in Ukraine.
And like the day before, the Russian army assured its intention to continue the truce until midnight this Saturday (10 p.m. in France), while denouncing Ukrainian artillery fire on its positions which are continuing.
She claimed to have repelled attacks or responded to Ukrainian fire in several places along the front, inflicting casualties on her opponent.
Ukraine has never believed in the 36-hour ceasefire, claiming it is a ruse to buy time.
Washington, Paris, London, Berlin and the European Union have lambasted the initiative.
Journalists present in Chassiv Iar, in eastern Ukraine, observed sustained bombardments throughout the morning.
In Bakhmout, the epicenter of the fighting further north, AFP had already heard artillery duels on both sides of the front on Friday, in the hours following the establishment of the unilateral ceasefire by Russia .
According to the Ukrainian Prosecutor's Office, two people were killed and 13 injured.
"Routine" rhythm of combat
Admittedly, the bombardments are less intense.
Maybe the soldiers are giving themselves a break, maybe the snow is just making it difficult to pilot drones and spot targets.
Orthodox Christmas or not, fighting in Ukraine continues at a “routine” pace, the Ukrainian Defense Ministry said on Twitter on Saturday.
One of the most fiercely disputed areas remains the town of Kremina and its surroundings, in the Luhansk oblast.
The forest, to the west of the town, "provides some cover against aerial observation even in winter, both sides most likely having difficulty in fine-tuning artillery fire".
Read alsoCeasefire in Ukraine, possible negotiations: should we believe Putin?
Attacks have been reported in at least seven regions of eastern and southern Ukraine in the past 24 hours, killing at least three people and injuring 14, the Kyiv Independent reports this Saturday morning.
Russian troops shelled southern Kherson Oblast 39 times on Friday.
Residential buildings and a fire station came under fire in the liberated city of Kherson, Governor Yaroslav Yanushevych claims on Telegram.
A rescuer is said to have died, and seven other people are injured.
But the Russian army, it ensures respect the ceasefire.
She denounces the Ukrainian artillery fire, targeting among other things the annexed Crimea: their air defenses of Sevastopol, an occupied city, shot down a Ukrainian drone during an apparent attack against the port where the Russian Black Sea Fleet is based.
According to Mikhail Razvozhaev, the city's Russian-backed governor, the incident happened in the early hours of this Saturday, Orthodox Christmas Day.
"Even the holy holiday of Christmas was no reason for these inhuman people to end their attempts to attack our heroic city," he wrote on Telegram.
