Ukrainian and Russian troops battled in eastern regions as Russian President Vladimir Putin called for a 36-hour ceasefire to mark Orthodox Christmas, a move rejected by Kyiv
armoured combat vehicles
The Kremlin said Putin had ordered Russian troops to cease firing from midday on Friday along the entire front, in response to a call for a Christmas truce from Patriarch Kirill of Moscow, the head of the Russian Orthodox Church, a close Putin ally. A genuine truce in Ukraine would be the first since May, when the sides halted intense fighting in the devastated port of Mariupol to allow Ukrainian forces to surrender there.to stop Ukrainian advances in the strategic industrial area and eastern frontline known as the Donbas.
"There’s one word that best described that and it’s ‘cynical’," U.S. State Department spokesperson Ned Price said in a press briefing of Putin's ceasefire order. Putin has shown no willingness to discuss relinquishing his territorial conquests, despite mounting losses among his troops.
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