Monitoring Desk
KYIV, UKRAINIAN: Ukrainian armed forces resorted to the heaviest shelling attack in years in the country’s Russian-controlled east as both sides ruled out a Christmas truce in the nearly 10-month-old war.
The Russian-backed mayor, Alexei Kulemzin, said that 40 rocket launchers were fired from BM-21 Grad at civilians in the city center in the early hours. A senior Ukrainian officer, Oleksiy Gromov, said that the Kremlin is seeking to turn the brawl into a prolonged armed confrontation, dismissing the possibility of a truce over the festive period.
Ukraine’: Attack a war crime
He said that Kulemzin cast the Donetsk attack as a war crime and said it was the biggest on the city since 2014 when pro-Moscow separatists seized it from Kyiv’s control area. Preliminary information showed that 5 people had been hurt, including many children.
Ukraine’s General Staff said that Moscow’s focus remained on the eastern cities of Avdiivka and Bakhmut and that Ukrainian forces had repelled Russian aggression.
