Putin orders to implement ceasefire on January 6 and 7, Ukraine reacts

The Kremlin’s press service reported this. 

Earlier on Thursday, Patriarch Kirill of Moscow and All Russia called for a Christmas truce so that “Orthodox people could attend services on Christmas Eve and Christmas Day.”

Mykhailo Podolyak, adviser to the head of the Ukrainian President's Office, called Kirill's statement a “cynical trap”: 

“The Russian Orthodox Church is not an authority for global Orthodoxy and acts only as a "propagandist of war". The Russian Orthodox Church called for the genocide of Ukrainians, encouraged mass murders and insists on even greater militarization of the Russian Federation. Therefore, the Russian Orthodox Church's statement about a "Christmas truce" is a cynical trap and an element of propaganda,” he wrote.

Subsequently, the press service of the Ukrainian President's Office posted the full text of Podolyak's statement, which called the Russian Federation's statement an exclusively propaganda gesture. And nothing more.

“Russia is trying in every possible way to at least temporarily reduce the intensity of fighting and the intensity of attacks on its logistics centers in order to gain time for mobilization, the construction of large-scale fortifications in the captured territories, and the regrouping of the army. It was not possible to do this by one or another military means. Therefore, standard information tricks were used,” the statement said.

In addition, Russia wants to show allegedly "humanistic approaches in the war" and try to convince the Europeans to put pressure on Ukraine.

“They have one task: “immediate negotiations, acceptance of the Russian ultimatum, and a new line of division.” This is the cynical meaning of Putin's instruction on a "temporary ceasefire". A banal trick. At the same time, there is not the slightest desire to end the war. All let me remind you that only Russia attacks civilian objects, including places of religious rites, with missiles and drones, and does it precisely on Christmas holidays. Therefore, once again: there is no need to react to deliberately manipulative initiatives of the Russian leadership,” Podolyak added.

Secretary of Ukraine's National Security and Defense Council Oleksii Danilov also tweeted his response to Russia:

“What does a bunch of little Kremlin devils have to do with the Christian holiday of Christmas? Who will believe the scumbags killing children, shelling maternity homes, and torturing prisoners? Cease-fire regime? Lies and hypocrisy. We will bite you in the singing silence of the Ukrainian night.”