Ukraine spurned an offer from Russian President Vladimir Putin for a 36-hour ceasefire over Orthodox Christmas, saying there would be no truce until Russia withdraws its invading forces from occupied land.
Ukrainian servicemen set up a mortar for firing it towards positions of Russian troops, amid Russia's attack on Ukraine, in the outskirts of Bakhmut, Donetsk region, Ukraine December 30, 2022.Ukrainian servicemen set up a mortar for firing it towards positions of Russian troops, amid Russia's attack on Ukraine, in the outskirts of Bakhmut, Donetsk region, Ukraine December 30, 2022.
“Proceeding from the fact that a large number of citizens professing Orthodoxy live in the areas of hostilities, we call on the Ukrainian side to declare a ceasefire and allow them to attend services on Christmas Eve, as well as on Christmas Day,” Putin said. Podolyak, had earlier rejected Kirill’s for a truce as “a cynical trap and an element of propaganda”. He described the Russian Orthodox Church, which has endorsed the invasion, as a “war propagandist” that had incited the “mass murder” of Ukrainians and the militarisation of Russia
The Kremlin said Putin had told Erdogan Moscow was ready for talks – but only under the condition that Ukraine “take into account the new territorial realities”, a reference to acknowledging Moscow’s annexation of Ukrainian territory.“The Russian Federation under the word ‘talks’ offers Ukraine & the world to recognise ‘its right to seize foreign territories’ & ‘to fix the absence of legal consequences for mass killings on foreign territory,'” he wrote on Twitter.
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