Ukraine, Putin: “Russia ready for negotiations”. Skepticism from Kyiv

Paolo Ondarza – Vatican City

Russia is ready to negotiate with all parties involved in the war in Ukraine. This was stated by President Vladimir Putin, accusing Kyiv and its Western allies of “refusing” to negotiate. The brings it back the Guardian. Speaking in an interview on state television Russia 1Putin declared: “We are ready to negotiate with all those involved on acceptable solutions, but it depends on them: we are not the ones who refuse to negotiate”. “Our goal – he added – is to unite the Russian people”. According to Putin , the policy of Moscow’s geopolitical adversaries aims to “divide Russia”. When asked “whether Russia can treat Ukraine as cynically and underhandedly as Western countries do,” the agency writes taxPutin replied: “We could not but have a different philosophy, a different approach to life and people”.

Kyiv: Russia does not want negotiations

Total skepticism about Russia’s willingness to negotiate was immediately expressed by the Ukrainian presidential adviser, Mykhailo Podolyak, according to whom “Putin needs to get back to reality”. For Podolyak it is “obvious” that Russia “does not want negotiations, but try to avoid responsibility”. “Russia – the presidential adviser said again – has attacked Ukraine by its own decision and is killing citizens. There are no other countries, reasons or geopolitics. Russia does not want negotiations”, he concluded Podolyak, “but try to avoid responsibility. It is obvious and for this we will take it to court”.

The sirens still sound

Even on Christmas morning, sirens sounded in Kyiv and other Ukrainian regions. The city administration of the Ukrainian capital has urged people to go to shelters after the announcement of the air alert. The mayor of Mykolaiv, in the south of the country, also warned of the plane scare. Meanwhile the number of civilians killed in the Ukrainian province of Kherson in the past 24 hours has risen to 16, according to the head of the regional military administration, Yaroslav Yanushevich. In total, 64 people were injured with varying levels of severity, he added in a post on his channel Telegramone day after the Russian attack on the center of the provincial capital which massacred civilians.

Zelensky: call for unity

In his Christmas message addressed to his fellow Orthodox Christians of Western rite and disseminated on the same social platform, the Ukrainian president Volodymyr Zelensky, for his part, appealed to the unity and perseverance of all the people: “Freedom – he said – has a high price. But slavery comes at an even higher price.” “Wherever we are – added the head of state – we will be together today”. Noting that all holidays have “a bitter aftertaste” this year, Zelensky commented: “Our houses and streets cannot be so bright. Christmas bells can’t ring that loud”, covered by “air raid sirens, or worse, gunfire and explosions”. Most of the population in Ukraine is Orthodox and celebrates Christmas Eve and Christmas according to the Julian calendar, January 6 and 7.

Shevchuk – a duty to rejoice at Christmas

Last night, as he concelebrated Christmas Mass in the Church of St. Alexander in Kyiv, the head of the Ukrainian Greek Catholic Church (UGCC), Sviatoslav Shevchuk exhorted “not to be afraid to rejoice even when you feel like crying”. The major archbishop recalled that in Ukraine, before Christmas, there was much debate about whether it was right to rejoice over Christmas in times of war. “It is not only possible,” he said, “but also necessary to rejoice at Christmas in Ukraine! A nation is invincible if it knows how to kneel before the tender love of God, which is revealed to us today in the Divine Child. Why this joy it does not come from the earth, but from the sky”. The apostolic nuncio in Ukraine, Archbishop Visvaldas Kulbokas, presided over the Eucharist, with whom the Latin Catholic bishop of the diocese of Kyiv-Zhytomyr, Vitaly Kryvytskyi, and other priests of the Roman Catholic Church concelebrated.