The US is to offer a new arms aid package worth $3.75bn (£3.1bn) to Ukraine and its neighbours. There is the White House declared, including several dozen Bradley fighting vehicles for the first time. The package includes a $2.85bn drawdown from the Pentagon’s holdings that will go directly to Ukraine and $225m in foreign military funding to support long-term capacity building and the modernization of Ukraine’s military. The White House said.
A unilateral 36-hour ceasefire announced by Russian President Vladimir Putin in Ukraine came into effect on Friday. The ceasefire will continue until the end of Saturday, according to Russia’s state-run TV channel “Full Line of Contact”. reported. The Russian president’s order came after Patriarch Kirill, head of the Orthodox Church in Russia. called for a ceasefire and a Christmas truce in Ukraine to allow Orthodox people to attend services.
Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky rejected Russia’s ceasefire proposal, which many observers speculated was intended to allow the Russian soldiers to rest. President of Ukraine requested Its goal was to halt the advance of Ukraine’s forces in Donetsk and the wider eastern Donbass region and bring Moscow’s forces into greater numbers.
US President Joe Biden Putin said “Trying to find some oxygen” The Russian leader implemented the ceasefire, noting that the break was not enforced on Dec. 25 or New Year’s Day, which many Orthodox Ukrainians celebrate. Putin’s announcement may have been an informational move With the aim of discrediting Ukraine, According to the American think tank, the Institute for War Studies.
Artillery exchanges hit war-torn towns in eastern Ukraine in defiance of Putin’s ceasefire declaration.. Agence France-Presse reported that outgoing and incoming shelling was heard in the frontline town of Baghmut after a unilateral ceasefire was deemed to have been launched. The Ukrainian presidential administration said Russian forces also attacked the city of Kramatorsk in the eastern Donetsk region, as well as the main city of Kurakov, where residential buildings and medical facilities were damaged.
In the first three hours of Moscow’s unilateral ceasefire, Russian troops opened fire 14 times in the Luhansk region.said the Governor of Eastern Ukraine region, Serhiy Haidai.
Russia accused Ukrainian troops of shelling its military positions in the occupied Donetsk region. Just as the cease-fire announced by Moscow came into effect. Russian-based authorities in the Donetsk People’s Republic said in a telegram that “six 155 mm shells were fired” from “155 mm NATO artillery guns,” according to Russian state-run news agency Tass. reported.
Ukraine’s military intelligence has said Russia will order the mobilization of 500,000 troops in January. In addition to the 300,000 it called for in October. Ukraine’s paramilitary intelligence chief, Vadim Skibitsky, said Ukraine believes Conscripts will be part of Russian offensives Spring and summer in the east and south of the country.
Ukraine will need at least $1.79bn (£1.48bn) to restore its telecommunications sector to pre-war levels., according to a United Nations report. There is Russia “Completely destroyed or captured” networks Communications infrastructure has been significantly damaged and destroyed in parts of Ukraine, and in more than 10 of the country’s 24 regions, the Geneva-based International Telecommunication Union said.
Reuters and Agence France-Presse contributed to this report
