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TWO UKRAINIANS WERE killed and another nine were wounded despite Russian leader Vladimir Putin unilaterally ordering his forces to pause attacks on Orthodox Christmas, according to Kyiv.
As a result of “Russia’s armed aggression”, one person was killed and another eight wounded in the eastern region of Donetsk over the past 24 hours, Kyrylo Tymoshenko, deputy head of the Ukrainian president’s office, said.
One more person was killed in the northeastern region of Kharkiv and another was wounded in the southern region of Kherson over the same period, Tymoshenko added.
“Despite the so-called ‘ceasefire’ declared by the Russian occupiers, over the past day, the enemy launched nine missile and three air strikes and fired 40 attacks from multiple rocket launchers,” Ukraine’s defence ministry said in a separate statement.
“In particular, civilian infrastructure was hit.”
Putin had ordered a 36-hour ceasefire to allow Orthodox Christians to mark Christmas which is celebrated on January 7 in Russia and Ukraine. The unilateral ceasefire ended at 11:00 pm in Kyiv (2100 GMT) on Saturday.
Kyiv and AFP journalists on the ground said there was little sign the fighting had eased on Saturday.
“After midnight the enemy launched seven rocket attacks on Kramatorsk and two on Kostyantynivka,” said Pavlo Kyrylenko, head of the Donetsk regional administration.
The Russian defence ministry insisted Saturday it observed the halt in fighting but repelled a number of Ukrainian attacks and killed dozens of Ukrainian troops.
Ukraine had dismissed the halt as a tactic by Russia to gain time to regroup its forces and bolster its defences following a series of battlefield setbacks.
Sergiy Gaiday, head of the Lugansk regional administration, said that Russians were redeploying forces from Bakhmut, the current epicentre of the fighting, to the city of Kreminna.
“We are expecting an intensification of hostilities,” he added, pointing to freezing temperatures.
“Our heavy equipment will finally be able to move forward faster.”
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Sky News at it again. Claiming Britain have “won the Space Race in Europe”! No mention of Ireland until it failed and then it “failed off the coast of Ireland” which it actually didn’t. The lowest of the low that lot. Their journalists hadn’t a clue what was going on either and they were basically hopping up and down about an aircraft taking off. Stop lads, you’re an embarrassment. Virgin is notorious in failure. Remember when Branson tried to cross the Atlantic in a giant condom? – and it burst.
@Terry Fagan: Sure don’t you know, a virgin never goes all the way.
@Terry Fagan: Poor old sky news. The French have an entire launch pad facility in Guiana. But then again, why should the facts stand in the way of a good story.
@Terry Fagan: they are just as biased towards their own perceived greatness as BBC
The North Koreans would have a better chance of a successful launch.
Word is it was taken out by harry kane’s penalty kick
DUCK!!!
@Paul Jude Redmond: orange!
@Paul Jude Redmond: “Crashed and Burned, Mav, huh?”
Not looking good, apparently suffered an anomaly
@Ronan Lawler: Yeah, looking like a failed mission. Probably the WiFi they used ;~}
I hope no rocket debris falls and kills any wildlife, if it does I hope the wildlife doesn’t die or get maimed, if it does get maimed I hope virgin cleans up the mess
@veronikahladova: You’re very hopeful….
@veronikahladova: I think the fish will be fine..
@David Terry: I’m hearing reports that an unconfirmed number of fish have applied for a self funded space exploration program themselves. And hope to deploy an anti rocket anomaly surveillance system. In case it happens again.
That must be the worst coverage of a major event I’ve seen (or didn’t see) pathetic.
@Kevin O’Brien: Tracked the plane on Flight Radar.
@Dave Barrett: Same. And tried to follow it on YouTube too, but that was just awful. Talk about doing things wrong.
@Kevin O’Brien: It was live in Sky News and the BBC 24 hour News channel.
A lot of begrudgery vibes there fella.
@Tom Quinn: Why would I be begrudging? Virgin had a dedicated YouTube channel, you know the people who were actually launching it & it was an absolute shambles. Thrilled you saw it on both BBC4 & SKY News “fella”
@Kevin O’Brien: Well, if Virgin can mess up something technical they will.
They can’t even manage a decent WIFI signal on Earth.
@Tom Quinn: That’s very very true, can’t argue with that tbf, haha. It’s a failed mission now (unsurprisingly) Gives them a chance to fix things & I’m not on about the rocket.
@Kevin O’Brien: it was dire.
@Dave Barrett: so did I but the mup0et reporting for Sky News said he didn’t know where it was! Woeful coverage.
I reckon Brexit doomed it to failure.
@Pat O’Leary: Somehow I can see the UK papers blaming the EU!!!!
I’ll never ever buy a cd in virgin records again oh wait!
@Paul Gorry: ah those were the days Paul, CD’s, alco pops, United on top. A much simpler time.
UK is choc a block with anomalies presently
Imagine ireland trying though!
@billy bound: there would be a man on the moon today.
@Tomás Barrett: and one on the sun tonight.
Boldly going where no virgin has gone before. Down!
should have name it:
The Good Ship Brexit.
The SS Taking Back Control.
The You Can Sign Out But You Can Never Leave (Earth)……..with apologies to the Eagles.
I was disappointed that the rocket attempt failed, the technology is old enough and has been well tested. But it demonstrates that projects do fail and unexpectedly! I was also expecting to see the headline, Britain Fires Rocket Into The Sea Off The South of Ireland. Well, Dyson famously experienced many hundreds of failures as he developed a product that really sucks, onward and, err, upward, I guess?
@Tom Hogarty: Like Dyson, it ran out if power far too early.
So the launch only went half way?
Don’t know which is worse: Virgin Orbit or Virgin TV.
Maybe they can reboot it.
They can’t do a thing right
was it only 1960s NASA that could really get things done?
have your say