Russia continues Ukrainian attack during Putin's cease-fire

Jan. 8 (UPI) -- Despite announcing cease-fire during the Orthodox Christmas season, Russia fired missiles into Kramatorsk and Kostyantynivka overnight Saturday into Sunday and the violence continued, officials said.

Three people were killed in the heavily-contested city of Bakhmut as Ukrainian forces have fought for weeks to hold on to the strategically important town in the Kharkiv region.

While pro-Russia military bloggers said that Moscow troops could soon encircle Bukhmut, the Washington, D.C., think tank Study of War said Kremlin gains have been slow and the city's fall is not imminent.

The attacks happened in the 36-hour window Russian President Vladimir Putin had proposed a cease-fire in respect for the Orthodox Christmas. Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky called the cease-fire announcement a ruse and didn't see any evidence of Moscow slowing their attacks.

"The world was once again able to see today how false any words of any level that sound from Moscow are," Zelensky said in his regular video address late Saturday.

In the meantime, Russian authorities said one person was killed in an attack at the Starobesheve power plant in Moscow-controlled Novyi Svit. The thermal power plant was one of two in part of the separatists-dominated Donetsk region. Russia blamed Ukraine for the attack.

The British Defense Ministry reported Sunday that Russia has continued to build defensive fortifications in central Zaporizhzhia Oblast, southern Ukraine, in what could be preparations for an offensive.

"The way Russia has worked on improving defenses suggests commanders are highly likely pre-occupied with the potential for major Ukrainian offensive action in two sectors: either in northern Luhansk Oblast, or in Zaporizhzhia," the ministry said.

"A major Ukrainian breakthrough in Zaporizhzhia would seriously challenge the viability of Russia's 'land bridge' linking Russia's Rostov region and Crimea; Ukrainian success in Luhansk would further undermine Russia's professed war aim of 'liberating' the Donbas."