The President of Ukraine, Volodimir Zelensky, accused Russia on Thursday of wanting to “use Christmas as a cover” to stop the advance of the Ukrainian army in Donbas and bring equipment and ammunition closer to their positions.
The President of Ukraine, Volodimir Zelenski, thus responded to Russian President Vladimir Putin, who today ordered a 36-hour ceasefire starting at noon tomorrow, Friday, following the call of the patriarch of the Russian Orthodox Church, Kiril, to establish a Christmas truce, which Orthodox believers celebrate on January 7.
“Now they want to use Christmas as a cover to at least briefly halt the advance of our guys in Donbas and bring equipment, ammunition and mobilized men closer to our positions.. What will this bring? Just another increase in the death toll, ”Zelensky denounced in his usual late-night speech.
He insisted that “everyone in the world knows how the Kremlin uses stoppages in the war to continue the war with renewed vigour,” he said.
Therefore, he warned that “to end the war faster, that is not what is needed at all. What is needed is for the citizens of Russia to find the courage to shake off their shameful fear of a man in the Kremlin, at least for 36 hours, at least on Christmas.”
He recalled that the Ukrainian Peace Formula was presented on November 15, and that one of its points provides for the withdrawal of Russian occupation troops from Ukraine.
“This is a guaranteed and reliable way to cease fire, stop casualties and war in general,” he said, warning that “since the morning of that same day, the number of Russian soldiers killed was 82,000.”
On December 12, he added, Russia received an offer to start the implementation of the Peace Formula with the withdrawal of the occupation troops just on Christmas Day, however, he said that since that day “the number of Russian soldiers killed it was almost 95,000.”
Zelensky said that Russia has already lost “almost 110,000” soldiers killed in this war, launched on February 24 of last year.
“Those who continued the terror once morest our country and sent all those people of theirs to slaughter, rejecting our offers to stop Russian aggression, certainly do not value life and definitely do not seek peace,” he reiterated.
The Ukrainian president ruled before Putin’s proposal that “the war will end when your soldiers leave or we expel them.”
