
Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskiy rejected out of hand on Thursday a Russian order for a truce over Orthodox Christmas, saying it was a trick to halt the progress of Ukraine's forces in the eastern Donbas region and bring in more of their own.
Speaking pointedly in Russian and addressing both the Kremlin and Russians as a whole, Zelenskiy said Moscow had repeatedly ignored Kyiv's own peace plan. The war would end, he said, when Russian troops left Ukraine or were thrown out.