Live Russia-Ukraine War: Zelensky Rejects Russia’s Ceasefire, Says War Will End ‘When Your Soldiers Go’ | Russia

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Zelensky rejects Russia’s ceasefire, saying the war will end ‘when your soldiers leave’

Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky rejected a Russian order for a truce on the occasion of Russian Orthodox Christmas, starting at noon on Friday and ending at midnight on Saturday. He said stopping the advance of Ukrainian forces in the eastern Donbass region and introducing more reinforcements was a ruse.

“Now they want to use Christmas as a cover, albeit for a short time, to stop the advance of our boys in the Donbass and bring equipment, ammunition and mobilized forces close to our positions,” Zelensky said in his video address on Thursday night.

“What would that give them? Just another increase in their total losses.”

Zelensky, speaking clearly in Russian rather than Ukrainian, said that ending the war meant “an end to the aggression of your country…and the war will end either when your soldiers leave or we expel them.”

Updated at 06.33 GMT

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Putin’s ally is fighting for control of salt and gypsum mines near the Ukrainian city of Bakhmut, according to the US

A White House official said a close ally of Russian President Vladimir Putin is interested in taking control of salt and gypsum from mines near the Ukrainian city of Bakhmut.

Yevgeny Prigozhin is the founder of Russia’s most powerful mercenary force, the Wagner Group. Wagner played a major role in the Russian attack on Bakhmut.

The US official said there were indications that Russia and Prigozhin’s “obsession” with Bakhmut was driven by monetary motives.

The US has previously accused Russian mercenaries of exploiting natural resources in the Central African Republic, Mali, Sudan and elsewhere to help fund Moscow’s war in Ukraine – a charge that Russia has dismissed as “anti-Russian outrage”:

US State Department calls cease-fire proposal “cynical”

In Washington, US President Joe Biden, the State Department and the Pentagon greeted Putin’s order with skepticism. Biden said he believed the Russian president was “trying to find some oxygen.”

Ukraine has had some battlefield successes in the past few months even though Russia has continued its barrage of missile and drone strikes on Ukrainian power plants, knocking out power to millions of people at times in the middle of winter. Russia has denied targeting civilians since its invasion began on February 24, but strikes have included Christmas Day and New Year’s attacks on civilian infrastructure, according to Kyiv.

“There is one word that best describes it and that is ‘cynical,'” State Department spokesman Ned Price told a news briefing about Putin’s cease-fire order.

“Our concern … is that the Russians will seek to use any pause in the fighting to rest, to replenish, to regroup, and eventually to re-offend,” Price said.

Updated at 06.32 GMT

Zelensky rejects Russia’s ceasefire, saying the war will end ‘when your soldiers leave’

Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky rejected a Russian order for a truce on the occasion of Russian Orthodox Christmas, starting at noon on Friday and ending at midnight on Saturday. He said stopping the advance of Ukrainian forces in the eastern Donbass region and introducing more reinforcements was a ruse.

“Now they want to use Christmas as a cover, albeit for a short time, to stop the advance of our boys in the Donbass and bring equipment, ammunition and mobilized forces close to our positions,” Zelensky said in his video address on Thursday night.

“What would that give them? Just another increase in their total losses.”

Zelensky, speaking clearly in Russian rather than Ukrainian, said that ending the war meant “an end to the aggression of your country…and the war will end either when your soldiers leave or we expel them.”

Updated at 06.33 GMT

Welcome and summary

Hello, and welcome to our live coverage of the war in Ukraine. My name is Helen Sullivan and I will give you an update in the coming period.

Our main topic this morning: Ukraine’s President, Volodymyr Zelensky, has rejected a unilateral order by Russia for a 36-hour ceasefire from Friday, saying it is a ploy to stop the advance of Ukrainian forces in the eastern Donbass region for Moscow’s sake. To bring in more of their own forces.

Zelensky, speaking clearly in Russian rather than Ukrainian, said that ending the war meant “an end to the aggression of your country…and the war will end either when your soldiers leave or we expel them.”

Here are the other major recent developments:

The US State Department expressed skepticism about Putin’s announced ceasefire, calling it “cynical” in light of Moscow’s New Year’s attack on Ukraine, and saying the US had “not much confidence” in the announcement’s intentions.

Putin’s announcement came hours after the head of the Russian Orthodox Church, Patriarch Kirill, called for a ceasefire and a Christmas truce in Ukraine. In a statement, Kirill said he had appealed to “all parties involved in the internal conflict” for a ceasefire, so that the Orthodox could attend services on Christmas Eve and Christmas Day.

The White House announced, after German Chancellor Olaf Scholz and US President Joe Biden spoke on the phone, that Germany would join the United States in providing Ukraine with an additional Patriot air defense battery. The White House said in a statement that the two leaders “expressed their shared determination to continue to provide necessary financial, humanitarian, military, and diplomatic support to Ukraine for as long as it is needed.”

The United States believes that Vladimir Putin ally Yevgeny Prigozhin is interested in taking control of salt and gypsum mines near the Ukrainian-controlled city of Bakhmut, a White House official said on Thursday. The official added that there are indications that monetary motives were behind Russia’s and Prigozhin’s “obsession” with Bakhmut. Prigozhin is the owner of the Russian private military company Wagner Group.

Germany’s economics minister, Robert Habeck, said Germany’s supply of arms to Ukraine was a “good decision” during a press conference on Thursday. Arms exports must be approved by the Hapic department.

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