On the 5th of January Ukraine rejected Russia’s call for a 36-hour ceasefire from noon on Friday as an insidious trick, Reuters writes.
The leaders of Germany and the United States have announced that they will send armored vehicles to support Kyiv. The US aid shipment could include up to 50 Bradley armored vehicles. According to a joint statement by Joe Biden and German Chancellor Olaf Scholz, Germany will supply Marder armored vehicles resembling small tanks. The two countries have agreed to train Ukrainian soldiers, and Germany will also participate in the delivery of the Patriot missile system.
Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky has rejected Russia’s cease-fire offer. The aggressor offered a ceasefire during the Russian Orthodox Christmas. Zelensky stated that this was an attempt to fool the Ukrainians, plant the advance in Donbas and bring in more Moscow forces.
«Now they want the Christmas truce as a cover to stop the advance of our men and bring equipment, ammunition and mobilized soldiers closer to our positions,»
Zelensky said. He added that it would do nothing for the Russians, only add to their losses.
Meanwhile, Biden has said the cease-fire offer could be a sign of desperation. The Russian ambassador to the US, Anatoly Antonov, wrote on his Facebook account that Washington would simply destroy the Ukrainians in this way, and urged the US to consider the consequences of sending Bradley armored vehicles.
The Russian Orthodox Church celebrates Christmas on the 7th of January, but a large number of Ukrainian believers have switched to celebrating Christmas on the 25th of December.
Speaking deliberately in Russian rather than Ukrainian, Zelensky said the end of the war means ending Russian aggression:
«And the war will end either when your soldiers leave or we throw them out.»
In Kyiv, the capital of Ukraine, and Kramatorsk in the east of the country, Ukrainians try to go about their daily lives. Valerii from Kramatorsk told Reuters that there was no truce on Catholic Christmas, and the shooting doesn’t stop on holidays and weekends, so he doesn’t trust Putin. He added that on New Year’s Eve alone, the city received three or four Russian strikes. Nataliia Shkolka, a resident of Kyiv, said that the city was heavily bombed on New Year’s Eve and that the cease-fire offer is now hypocrisy on Putin’s part.
On the 4th of January, talks between the President of Ukraine and Russia took place with the President of Turkey, Recep Tayyip Erdoğan.
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