Ukrainian and Western officials suspected an ulterior motive in Putin\u2019s apparent goodwill gesture
\n MOSCOW
\nRussian forces struck the city of Kramatorsk in eastern Ukraine on Friday, the deputy head of Ukraine\u2019s presidential administration said, after the supposed start of a unilateral Russian cease-fire.
\n\u201cThe occupiers hit the city with rockets twice,\u201d Kyrylo Tymoshenko said on social media, adding that a residential building had been hit but there were no victims.
\nA unilateral Russian cease-fire ordered by President Vladimir Putin has come into force along the entire front as of noon Moscow time, Russian state television said.
\n\u201cAt noon today, the cease-fire regime came into force on the entire contact line,\u201d Russia\u2019s state First Channel said. \u201cIt will continue until the end of January 7.\u201d
\nThe impact of Russian President Vladimir Putin\u2019s order for his forces in Ukraine to observe a unilateral, 36-hour cease-fire was in doubt Friday after Kyiv officials dismissed the move as a ploy but didn\u2019t clarify whether Ukrainian troops would follow suit.
\nMoscow also didn\u2019t say whether it would hit back if Ukraine kept fighting.
\nThe Russian-declared truce in the nearly 11-month war was due to begin at noon Friday and continue through midnight Saturday Moscow time.
\nPutin\u2019s announcement Thursday that the Kremlin\u2019s troops would stop fighting along the 1100 Km front line or elsewhere was unexpected. It came after the Russian Orthodox Church head, Patriarch Kirill, proposed a cease-fire for this weekend\u2019s Orthodox Christmas holiday. The Orthodox Church, which uses the Julian calendar, celebrates Christmas on Jan. 7.
\nBut Ukrainian and Western officials suspected an ulterior motive in Putin\u2019s apparent goodwill gesture.
\nUkrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky questioned the Kremlin\u2019s intentions, accusing the Kremlin of planning the fighting pause \u201cto continue the war with renewed vigor.\u201d
\n\u201cNow they want to use Christmas as a cover to stop the advance of our guys in the (eastern) Donbas (region) for a while and bring equipment, ammunition and mobilized people closer to our positions,\u201d Zelensky said late Thursday.
\nHe did not, however, state outright that Kyiv would ignore Putin\u2019s request.
\nUS President Joe Biden echoed Zelensky\u2019s wariness, saying it was \u201cinteresting\u201d that Putin was ready to bomb hospitals, nurseries and churches on Christmas and New Year\u2019s.
\n\u201cI think (Putin) is trying to find some oxygen,\u201d Biden said, without elaborating.
\nState Department spokesman Ned Price said Washington had \u201clittle faith in the intentions behind this announcement,\u201d adding that Kremlin officials \u201dhave given us no reason to take anything that they offer at face value.\u201d
\nThe truce order seems to be a ploy \u201cto rest, refit, regroup, and ultimately re-attack,\u201d he said.
\nThe Institute for the Study of War agreed that the truce could be a ruse allowing Russia to regroup.
\n\u201cSuch a pause would disproportionately benefit Russian troops and begin to deprive Ukraine of the initiative,\u201d the think tank said late Thursday. \u201cPutin cannot reasonably expect Ukraine to meet the terms of this suddenly declared cease-fire and may have called for the cease-fire to frame Ukraine as unaccommodating and unwilling to take the necessary steps toward negotiations.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
Ukrainian and Western officials suspected an ulterior motive in Putin\u2019s apparent goodwill gesture MOSCOW Russian forces struck the city of Kramatorsk in eastern Ukraine on Friday, the deputy head of Ukraine\u2019s presidential administration said, after the supposed start of a unilateral Russian cease-fire. \u201cThe occupiers hit the city with rockets twice,\u201d Kyrylo Tymoshenko said on […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":305958,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[6],"tags":[],"class_list":{"0":"post-305947","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-world"},"yoast_head":"\n