Ukraine has dismissed Vladimir Putin's announcement of a 36-hour ceasefire to mark Orthodox Christmas, insisting there will be no truce until Russian forces withdraw from occupied territory. The Kremlin declared the pause would run from midday on Friday 6 January to midnight on Saturday 7 January, citing an appeal from Patriarch Kirill, a close ally of the Russian president.
President Volodymyr Zelenskiy said the move was a cynical ploy to halt Ukrainian advances in the eastern Donbas region and regroup. In his nightly address, he claimed Moscow wanted to use Christmas as cover to bring up equipment, ammunition and mobilised troops closer to Ukrainian positions. Presidential adviser Mykhailo Podolyak called the declaration hypocrisy, tweeting that Russia must leave occupied territories before any truce could be considered.
Oleksiy Danilov, secretary of Ukraine's national security and defence council, accused Moscow of hiding behind a Christian holiday. He suggested a simple solution: that Russians "pick up their suitcases and go to Russia". In a separate tweet, he questioned the credibility of those who "kill children, shell maternity homes and torture prisoners".
Ukraine's western allies also criticised the proposal. US President Joe Biden said Putin was "trying to find some oxygen" by floating the idea. Germany's foreign minister, Annalena Baerbock, argued that a true peacemaker would bring his soldiers home, while British Foreign Secretary James Cleverly tweeted that a 36-hour pause would "do nothing to advance the prospects for peace".
Separately, Wagner Group founder Yevgeny Prigozhin announced that the first inmates recruited by his private military force had received pardons after six months of fighting in Ukraine. He told Russian state media that the former convicts had "worked with honour" and warned them against returning to crime, while boasting that they had been compensated handsomely for their service.
