Patriarch Kirill of Moscow and All Rus’ called on all parties to the conflict over Ukraine to declare a truce on the occasion of the Nativity of Christ from 12:00 on January 6 to 24:00 on January 7.
“I appeal to all parties to the conflict to call for a ceasefire… from 12:00 on January 6 to 24:00 on January 7, so that the Orthodox can attend the services on Christmas Eve,” reads a message posted on the website of the Russian Orthodox Church website And Christmas Day Christ.
At the end of December, the head of the Russian Orthodox Church said that Russia’s entry into the hostilities in the Donbass was the result of the fact that peacekeeping efforts were sabotaged by the Kyiv authorities and Western countries.
He added that he looks at what is happening with deep pain, and in unleashing the conflict, he lays the blame primarily on those who “set as their goal the destruction of the unity of Holy Rus’, the unity of our people and our faith.”
In the same context, the Turkish presidency said that President Recep Tayyip Erdogan called his Russian counterpart Vladimir Putin during a telephone conversation asking him to declare a “unilateral” ceasefire in Ukraine in support of calls for negotiations.
According to the Turkish President, Erdogan said in a telephone conversation with Putin today that “calls for peace and negotiations between Moscow and Kyiv must be backed up by a unilateral ceasefire.”
The Presidents of Russia and Turkey discussed by telephone the Syrian crisis, the situation in Ukraine and bilateral relations.
Source: RT + News