Moscow also calls on the Ukrainian side to declare a ceasefire so that citizens can attend services on Christmas Eve and on the day of the holiday (with the old calendar) – Ukraine rejected the offer
The president of Russia Vladimir Putin today ordered the Russian forces to implement a ceasefire in Ukraine on January 6 and 7, on the occasion of Christmas, following the appeal he addressed the patriarch Cyrilthe Kremlin announced.
“Taking into account the appeal of His Holiness Patriarch Kirill, I have instructed the Russian Ministry of Defense to implement a ceasefire along the entire contact line from 12:00 on the 6th of January until 24:00 on the 7th” the Kremlin statement said.
“Due to the fact that a large number of Orthodox people live in the areas of hostilities, we call on the Ukrainian side to declare a ceasefire and allow them to attend the Christmas Eve service, as well as on Christmas Day,” he added.
Many Orthodox Christians in Russia and Ukraine follow the old calendar and celebrate Christmas on January 6-7.
Earlier, Patriarch Kirill, the head of the Russian Orthodox Church, called on both sides to implement a Christmas truce, a proposal rejected by Kyiv as a cynical trap.
Kyiv rejects Putin’s truce proposal as ‘hypocrisy’
A senior Ukrainian official today dismissed Russian President Vladimir Putin’s proposal for a 36-hour truce as hypocritical and said a “temporary truce” would only be possible when Russia gives up territory it has seized in Ukraine.
“The Russian Federation must leave the occupied territories – only then will there be a ‘temporary truce’. Keep the hypocrisy to yourself,” presidential adviser Michael Podoliak wrote on Twitter.
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