the Russian unilateral truce has officially ended without the fighting having really stopped

Cover image: Smoke rises after a Russian strike on January 7, 2023 in Bakhmout, eastern Ukraine, in the midst of a ceasefire decreed by Vladimir Putin. CLODOGH KILCOYNE/REUTERS

• The 36-hour unilateral Russian truce announced by Vladimir Putin to celebrate Orthodox Christmas ended on Saturday evening without the hostilities actually stopping. kyiv accuses Moscow of not respecting its own ceasefire; Russia in return accused the Ukrainians of having prevented its application by forcing it to retaliate.
• “The world was able to see once again today how lies are all the words spoken at the highest level in Moscow”Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky said on Saturday evening. “They talked about a so-called ceasefire… but the reality is that Russian shells continued to hit Bakhmout and other Ukrainian positions”he added.
• Vladimir Putin attended a celebratory religious service alone on Saturday led by priests in golden albs, according to footage released by the Kremlin. The celebration took place in the Cathedral of the Annunciation, originally designed as a church for the tsars.
• On the Ukrainian side, hundreds of faithful attended a historic liturgy on Saturday in the famous monastery of the Lavra of the Caves of kyiv, formerly under the jurisdiction of the Moscow Patriarchate but passed in December to the bosom of the Independent Ukrainian Church.
• Washington has encouraged the allies to provide more air defense systems to Ukraine. Lloyd J. Austin III, the US Defense Secretary, spoke with Oleksii Reznikov, the Ukrainian Defense Minister, on Friday to discuss the new US military aid of $ 3 billion for Ukraine
• Justice ministers from around the world will meet in London in March to show their support for the International Criminal Court (ICC) in its investigations into alleged war crimes committed in Ukraine, the British government announced on Saturday.
• Ukrainian military intelligence says Russia is set to order the mobilization of 500,000 more reservists in Januaryafter the 300,000 called in October.

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