MOSCOW, Jan 6 British Foreign Secretary James Cleverley said, that Russia's proposal for a Christmas truce will not bring the «prospects» of peace closer, while it was Ukraine that abandoned the idea of a Christmas ceasefire, calling it a «cover» for strengthening Russian positions on the front line.
«A thirty-six-hour cessation of Russian attacks will in no way advance the prospects for peace,» Cleverley wrote on Twitter.
Earlier, Patriarch Kirill of Moscow and All Rus' suggested establishing a Christmas truce from 12:00 on January 6 to 24:00 on January 7. Russian President Vladimir Putin then instructed Defense Minister Sergei Shoigu to introduce a ceasefire along the entire line of contact in Ukraine at a specified time. In accordance with the instructions of the President, the decree on a ceasefire was given to the troops.
The EU reacted with distrust to Moscow's proposal, the UN said that Secretary General António Guterres would welcome it. According to the chairman of the World Union of Old Believers (WBU) Leonid Sevastyanov, Pope Francis also supported this idea.
Vladimir Zelensky in his evening address rejected Russia's proposal for a Christmas truce, calling it a «cover» to strengthen Russian positions on the front line. The fact that Kyiv refuses to support the Christmas truce was also stated a little earlier by Oleksiy Danilov, Secretary of the National Security and Defense Council of Ukraine.