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An uneasy calm in Kyiv was broken Friday by air-raid sirens that also blared across the rest of Ukraine despite a Russian cease-fire declaration for Orthodox Christmas, a truce scorned by Ukrainian officials as a ploy.
No explosions were heard in the capital, however, and reports of sporadic fighting elsewhere in Ukraine were unconfirmed.
Kyiv residents used the slim window of calm to venture out and buy gifts, cakes and groceries for Christmas Eve family celebrations, hours after the cease-fire was to have started.
Russian President Vladimir Putin on Thursday ordered his forces in Ukraine to observe a unilateral, 36-hour cease-fire. Kyiv officials dismissed Putin's announcement that the Kremlin's troops would stop fighting along the more than 1,000-kilometer front line and elsewhere.
The decision came after the head of the Russian Orthodox Church, Patriarch Kirill, proposed a cease-fire for the Orthodox Christmas holiday. The Orthodox Church, which uses the Julian calendar, celebrates Christmas on January 7.
Moscow also didn't say whether its forces would retaliate if Ukraine kept fighting, but the Moscow-appointed head of the Donetsk region, Denis Pushilin, said they would.
The Russian-declared truce, after 11 months of warfare, began at noon Friday and was to continue through midnight Saturday Moscow time (0900 GMT Friday to 2100 GMT Saturday; 4 a.m. EST Friday to 4 p.m. EST Saturday).
Russia's Defense Ministry alleged that Ukrainian forces continued to shell its positions. The ministry said its forces returned fire to suppress the attacks. But it wasn't clear from the statement whether the attacks and return of fire took place before or after the cease-fire took effect.
The ministry's spokesman, Igor Konashenkov, reported multiple Ukrainian attacks in the eastern Donetsk, Luhansk and Zaporizhzhia regions. It was not possible to verify the claims.
Ukrainian and Western officials said they suspected an ulterior motive in Putin's seeming goodwill gesture.
Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy accused the Kremlin of planning the fighting pause "to continue the war with renewed vigor."
"Now they want to use Christmas as a cover to stop the advance of our guys in the [eastern] Donbas [region] for a while and bring equipment, ammunition and mobilized people closer to our positions," Zelenskyy said late Thursday.
U.S. President Joe Biden echoed Zelenskyy's wariness, saying it was "interesting" that Putin was ready to bomb hospitals, nurseries and churches in recent weeks on Christmas and New Year's.
"I think [Putin] is trying to find some oxygen," Biden said.
U.S. State Department spokesperson Ned Price said Washington had "little faith in the intentions behind this announcement," adding that Kremlin officials "have given us no reason to take anything that they offer at face value."
The Institute for the Study of War agreed the truce could be a ruse allowing Russia to regroup.
"Such a pause would disproportionately benefit Russian troops and begin to deprive Ukraine of the initiative," the think tank said late Thursday. "Putin cannot reasonably expect Ukraine to meet the terms of this suddenly declared cease-fire and may have called for the cease-fire to frame Ukraine as unaccommodating and unwilling to take the necessary steps toward negotiations."
Support for Ukraine
Meanwhile, a new U.S. weapons aid package for Ukraine worth more than $3 billion was set to be announced Friday and will include Sea Sparrow missiles for air defense and Bradley Fighting Vehicles, according to a document seen by Reuters.
Germany also plans to send armored personnel carriers by the end of March.
The United States will send 50 Bradley Fighting Vehicles to Ukraine as part of a new round of military aid to Kyiv, two defense officials told VOA.
The Bradleys will come with hundreds of TOW anti-tank guided missiles and hundreds of thousands of rounds of ammunition, according to a government document shared with VOA before the official announcement expected Friday.
Biden first announced that Bradleys would be included in the new package, a statement the Pentagon confirmed later Thursday.
"It's not a tank, but it's a tank killer," Pentagon press secretary Brigadier General Pat Ryder told reporters. "It will provide a significant boost to Ukraine's already impressive armored capabilities, and we're confident that it will aid them on the battlefield."
Germany and France also are sending armored vehicles, the two countries announced this week.
In addition, Germany will match the U.S. in sending Ukraine a Patriot missile battery for defense, the White House said Thursday. Training to use the Patriots, which former officials say will take months to complete, is still being finalized.
"We're exploring a variety of options, to include potential training here in the U.S., overseas or a combination of both," Ryder told reporters at the Pentagon.
The Patriot is the most advanced surface-to-air missile system the West has provided to date to help repel Russian aerial attacks.
Some information for this report came from The Associated Press, Reuters and Agence France-Presse.