Ukraine Rejects 'Hypocrisy' Of Putin's 36-Hour Ceasefire

Russia's president Vladimir Putin has ordered its army to undertake a 36-hour ceasefire to allow people to attend services on Orthodox Christmas Eve and Christmas Day.

- Daniel Reast Chris Stevenson

Mr Putin called on Kyiv to do the same, something immediately rejected by Mikhailo Podolyak, an adviser to Ukrainian president Volodymyr Zelensky, who said that Russia needs to leave the territory it is occupying and "only then will it have a 'temporary truce".

"Keep hypocrisy to yourself," he added, claiming that Moscow wanted to secure additional time to reduce the intensity of military clashes in order to regroup and mobilise additional forces. "A banal trick. There is not the slightest desire to end the war in this," Mr Podolyak said.

The head of the Russian Orthodox Church, Patriarch Kirill, had earlier suggested a truce from noon today until midnight on Sunday. "Taking into account the appeal of His Holiness Patriarch Kirill, I instruct the minister of defence of the Russian Federation to introduce a ceasefire regime along the entire line of contact of the parties in Ukraine from 12pm on 6 January 2023 to midnight on 7 January 2023," Mr Putin said, in a statement released by the Kremlin. Timings in such statements are given in local time.

"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," he added.

In the wake of Patriarch Kirill's suggestion of a temporary truce, Mr Podolyak had also dismissed it as "a cynical trap and an element of propaganda". The Russian Orthodox Church uses the ancient Julian calendar and celebrates Christmas on 7 January later than the Gregorian calendar - although some Christians in Ukraine also mark the holiday on that date.