Reports of strikes on Ukraine’s frontline after Vladimir Putin ordered a truce to observe Russian Orthodox Christmas
Hello and welcome back to the Guardian’s ongoing live coverage of the war in Ukraine. I’m Adam Fulton and I’ll be with you for the next hour or so.
Leading the latest news at it turns 8.45am in Kyiv, Russian and Ukrainian forces have exchanged artillery fire in Ukraine despite Moscow ordering its troops to pause attacks for a 36-hour ceasefire, which Kyiv rejected as a ploy.
The US will provide a new weapons aid package for Ukraine and its neighbours worth more than $3.75bn (£3.1bn), the White House has announced, including for the first time several dozen Bradley fighting vehicles. The package includes a $2.85bn drawdown from the Pentagon’s stocks that will be sent directly to Ukraine and $225m in foreign military financing to build the long-term capacity and support the modernisation of Ukraine’s military, the White House said.
The US president, Joe Biden, said Vladimir Putin was “trying to find some oxygen” by floating the ceasefire, noting that the Russian leader did not implement the break on 25 December, which many Orthodox Ukrainians celebrate, or on New Year. Putin’s announcement was likely an information operation intended to damage Ukraine’s reputation, according to US thinktank the Institute for the Study of War.
Ukraine’s military intelligence has claimed Russia is set to order the mobilisation of as many as 500,000 conscripts in January in addition to the 300,000 it called up in October. Vadym Skibitsky, Ukraine’s deputy military intelligence chief, said Ukraine believed the conscripts would be part of a string of Russian offensives over the 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 prewar levels, according to a United Nations report. Russia has “destroyed completely or seized” networks in parts of Ukraine, and communications infrastructure in more than 10 of the country’s 24 regions have been considerably damaged and destroyed, the Geneva-based International Telecommunication Union said.
