emphasized the Ukrainian president Volodymyr Zelensky The truce ordered by Russia to allow Orthodox Christians to celebrate Christmas is a ploy designed to halt Ukraine’s advance into the eastern Donbass region and bring in more men and equipment.
Zelensky added in his recorded nightly speech, speaking in Russian and directing his speech to the Kremlin and Russians, that Moscow has repeatedly ignored Ukraine’s peace plan and that the war will end when its forces leave or are expelled from its country. .
The secret is in the Donbass!
He also went on to say that the Russians now want to use Christmas as a cover, albeit for a short time, to halt the advance of Ukrainian forces into the Donbass and bring equipment, ammunition and troops closer to their positions.
He went on to say that ending the war means ending what he saw as Russian aggression.
The first truce of its kind
Interestingly, Russia announced on Thursday a truce in Ukraine for a 36-hour period, starting at midnight on Friday.
Armistice in Ukraine .. and Kiev – a trap
A ceasefire will begin to be implemented on all lines of contact between the two sides in Ukraine, starting at 12:00 (09:00 GMT) on January 6 this year until 24:00 (21:00 GMT ) of January 7, according to Russian President Vladimir Putin.
On the other hand, the adviser to the director of the Ukrainian president’s office, Mikhailo Podolyak, said that a temporary truce with Russia could only take place if it leaves the territories it controls, defining the agreement as “hypocrisy”.
Interestingly, this is the first such truce since the start of the Russian military operation in the territory of the western neighbor last February.
In late March last year, Russia launched the second phase of its military operation on Ukrainian territory, in which it sought to control the entire Donbass Basin after loyalist separatists seized control of some of it. departed in 2014, with the aim of opening a land corridor linking the east to the Crimean peninsula, which it annexed to its territory in the same year.