Russia-Ukraine war live: Bakhmut is holding on despite everything, says Zelenskiy

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We mentioned in our earlier summary that 50 Ukrainian soldiers were released in a prisoner swap with Russia on Sunday. They (at least most of them) posed for a photograph…

Volodymyr Zelenskiy issued a fresh denunciation of what he said was Russia’s failure to observe the truce it had ordered for Orthodox Christmas by staging attacks on Ukrainian cities.

“Russians were shelling Kherson with incendiary ammunition immediately after Christmas,” the Ukrainian president said on Sunday, referring to a city in the south abandoned by Russian forces in November.

He said:

Strikes on Kramatorsk and other cities in Donbas – on civilian targets and at the very time when Moscow was reporting a supposed ‘silence’ for its army.

Russia said on Sunday that a missile attack on Kramatorsk, north-west of Bakhmut, had killed 600 Ukrainian soldiers. But a Reuters reporter at the scene found no obvious signs of casualties.

Ukraine 'holding on' in Bakhmut under heavy fire, says Zelenskiy

Ukrainian forces are repelling constant attacks on the town of Bakhmut in the eastern Donbas region and holding their positions in nearby Soledar in very difficult conditions, Volodymyr Zelenskiy said on Sunday.

In his nightly video address, the Ukrainian president said:

Bakhmut is holding on despite everything. And even though most of the town has been destroyed by Russian strikes, our soldiers are repelling constant Russian attempts to advance.

Soledar is holding on, even though there is even greater destruction and things are very difficult.

A Ukrainian soldier in his position as a tankman on the Bakhmut frontline. Photograph: Anadolu Agency/Getty Images

Opening summary

Welcome back to our continuing live coverage of the Russia-Ukraine war – day 320 of the conflict. It is 7:30am in Kyiv. My name is Ben Doherty.

Ukrainian forces are repelling constant attacks on Bakhmut in the eastern Donbas region and holding their positions in nearby Soledar in arduous conditions, President Volodymyr Zelenskiy said in his Sunday night to the nation.

Bakhmut is holding on despite everything.

Even though most of the town has been destroyed by Russian strikes, our soldiers are repelling constant Russian attempts to advance.

More on this soon. In other recent developments:

• Russia has claimed to have killed more than 600 Ukrainian troops in a “retaliatory strike” in the eastern town of Kramatorsk, but Ukraine’s armed forces rejected the claim. The mayor of the town, near the frontline city of Bakhmut, said there had been no deaths from strikes over the weekend, while a witness told Reuters on Sunday that buildings had been damaged but not destroyed and there were no obvious signs of casualties. The Russian claim seems suspicious for several reasons.

• Zelenskiy denounced what he said was Russia’s failure to observe a 36-hour ceasefire it had declared for Orthodox Christmas by launching attacks on Ukrainian cities.

• At least two people were killed during fighting in eastern Ukraine, officials said. Donetsk’s governor, Pavlo Kyrylenko, said one person was killed in strikes on Bakhmut and eight others in the region were wounded, Associated Press reported. Kyrylenko also said rocket attacks on Kramatorsk and Konstantynivka.

• Russia and Belarus have expanded their joint military training exercises in Belarus, the country’s defence TV channel said on Sunday, as concern grows that Moscow is pressuring its closest ally to join the war in Ukraine. The two countries added weapons, soldiers and specialised equipment to the exercises, Reuters reported.

• One person was killed in the attack on the Starobesheve power plant in Novyi Svit, Russia’s state news agency Tass said on Sunday. The thermal power plant was one of two – in part of Ukraine’s Donetsk region controlled by Russian forces – damaged in a rocket attack by the Ukrainian army, Moscow-installed officials said.

• Demands for a special tribunal to investigate Russia for a “crime of aggression” against Ukraine have been backed by senior UK politicians from across the political divide in a move to show Vladimir Putin and his generals that they will be held to account.

• The Russian government extended support to a legislative amendment that would classify maps that dispute the country’s official “territorial integrity” as punishable extremist materials, Reuters reported the state-owned Tass news agency as saying on Sunday.

• About 50 Ukrainian soldiers who were released from Russian detention on Sunday as part of a prisoner swap posed for a photo on their release.