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Russia Insists it is Observing Ukraine Ceasefire Despite Kyiv Attacks

Putin had unilaterally ordered his forces to pause attacks for 36 hours for the Orthodox Christmas. Reuters
Putin had unilaterally ordered his forces to pause attacks for 36 hours for the Orthodox Christmas. Reuters
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Russia Insists it is Observing Ukraine Ceasefire Despite Kyiv Attacks

Putin had unilaterally ordered his forces to pause attacks for 36 hours for the Orthodox Christmas. Reuters
Putin had unilaterally ordered his forces to pause attacks for 36 hours for the Orthodox Christmas. Reuters

Moscow insisted Saturday its army was observing a ceasefire it unilaterally declared in Ukraine to mark Orthodox Christmas despite artillery attacks by Kyiv troops.

"Despite the shelling of the armed forces of Ukraine of settlements and Russian positions, the implementation of the declared ceasefire will continue," the Russian defense ministry said in a statement.

The statement however added that over the past 24 hours Russian forces repelled a number of attacks by the Ukrainian army in eastern Ukraine and killed dozens of its troops.

AFP journalists in the town of Chasiv Yar south of the frontline city of Bakhmut on Saturday heard heavy artillery fire for much of Saturday morning.

On Saturday, the general staff of Ukraine's armed forces said that Russia launched one missile strike and fired 20 rounds from multiple rocket launchers over the past 24 hours.

Russian President Vladimir Putin had unilaterally ordered his forces to pause attacks for 36 hours for the Orthodox Christmas.

Ukraine has dismissed the halt -- due to last until the end of Saturday (2100 GMT) -- as a tactic by Russia to gain time to regroup its forces and bolster its defenses following a series of battlefield setbacks.

Orthodox Christians observe Christmas on January 7.

Also Saturday, Putin praised the Russian Orthodox Church for supporting Moscow's forces fighting in Ukraine in an Orthodox Christmas message designed to rally people behind his vision of modern Russia.

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S. Korea's Yoon Ignored Cabinet Opposition to Martial Law

Yoon Suk Yeol plunged the country into political chaos on December 3 with the bungled martial law declaration and has since holed up in his residence. Philip FONG / AFP
Yoon Suk Yeol plunged the country into political chaos on December 3 with the bungled martial law declaration and has since holed up in his residence. Philip FONG / AFP
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S. Korea's Yoon Ignored Cabinet Opposition to Martial Law

Yoon Suk Yeol plunged the country into political chaos on December 3 with the bungled martial law declaration and has since holed up in his residence. Philip FONG / AFP
Yoon Suk Yeol plunged the country into political chaos on December 3 with the bungled martial law declaration and has since holed up in his residence. Philip FONG / AFP

South Korea's suspended President Yoon Suk Yeol ignored the objections of key cabinet ministers before his failed martial law bid last month, according to a prosecutors' report seen by AFP on Sunday.
Yoon plunged the country into political chaos on December 3 with the bungled martial law declaration and has since holed up in his residence, surrounded by hundreds of security officers resisting arrest efforts.
The full 83-page prosecution report to indict former defense minister Kim Yong-hyun said the country's then prime minister, foreign minister and finance minister all expressed reservations the night of the decision.
They made their concerns clear about the economic and diplomatic fallout in a cabinet meeting, which Yoon called before his short-lived power grab.
"The economy would face severe difficulties, and I fear a decline in international credibility," then prime minister Han Duck-soo told Yoon, according to the report seen by AFP.
Han became acting president after Yoon was stripped of his duties, but was also impeached by opposition MPs who argued he refused demands to complete Yoon's impeachment process and to bring him to justice.
Foreign Minister Cho Tae-yul reportedly said martial law would have "diplomatic repercussions but also destroy the achievements South Korea has built over the past 70 years".
Acting president Choi Sang-mok, also finance minister, argued the decision would have "devastating effects on the economy and the country's credibility".
Despite the objections, Yoon said "there is no turning back", claiming the opposition -- which won a landslide in April's parliamentary election -- would lead the country to collapse.
"Neither the economy nor diplomacy will function," he reportedly said.
An earlier summary of the report provided to the media last month revealed Yoon authorized the military to fire their weapons to enter parliament during the failed bid.
The suspended president's lawyer Yoon Kab-keun dismissed the prosecutors' report.
He told AFP the indictment report alone does not constitute an insurrection and "it doesn't align legally, and there's no evidence either".
Yoon remains under investigation on charges of insurrection and faces arrest, prison or, at worst, the death penalty.
The Constitutional Court slated January 14 for the start of Yoon's impeachment trial, which if he does not attend would continue in his absence.
The court may take the prosecutors' report on Kim -- one of the first indicted over the martial law bid -- into consideration.