UKRAINE’S PRESIDENT HAS praised the US for including tank-busting armoured vehicles in its latest multibillion-dollar package of military aid, saying they are “exactly what is needed” for Ukrainian troops battling Russian forces.

The military assistance announced yesterday by the White House was the biggest to date for Kyiv, and for the first time it included Bradley armoured vehicles armed with anti-tank missiles.

In his nightly televised address yesterday, Ukraine President Volodymyr Zelenskyy called it “a very powerful package”.

“For the first time, we will get Bradley armoured vehicles — this is exactly what is needed. New guns and rounds, including high-precision ones, new rockets, new drones. It is timely and strong,” he said.

He thanked US President Joe Biden, US legislators and “all the Americans who appreciate freedom, and who know that freedom is worth protecting”.

Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy meeting with US President Joe Biden Andrew Harnik Andrew Harnik

Meanwhile, officials said it was unclear whether Moscow was abiding by a unilateral 36-hour ceasefire for Orthodox Christmas which Ukraine has denounced as a ploy.

Ukrainian authorities today said the truce appeared to have been ignored by some of Moscow’s own forces pressing ahead with the nearly 11-month invasion.

In the fiercely contested Luhansk region of eastern Ukraine, regional governor Serhiy Haidai reported continued Russian shelling and assaults.

He said that in the first three hours of the ceasefire’s supposed start on Friday, Russian forces shelled Ukrainian positions 14 times and stormed one settlement three times. The claim could not be independently verified.

The UK’s Ministry of Defence said in its daily readout on the invasion that “fighting has continued at a routine level into the Orthodox Christmas period”.

However, the Russian Defence Ministry has insisted that it has been observing the ceasefire.

“Despite the shelling of the armed forces of Ukraine of settlements and Russian positions, the implementation of the declared ceasefire will be continued,” the Russian Defence Ministry said in a statement.

Ukrainian officials dismissed Moscow’s unilateral order for a 36-hour pause as a ploy to buy its struggling invasion forces time to regroup. It was due to end on Saturday night — at midnight Moscow time, which is 11pm in the Ukrainian capital, Kyiv.

Ukrainian and western officials portrayed the announcement as an attempt by Russian President Vladimir Putin to take the moral high ground, while possibly seeking to snatch the battlefield initiative and rob the Ukrainians of momentum amid their counter-offensive of recent months.

Additional reporting by AFP