Russia’s president says Moscow is ready to negotiate and accuses “geopolitical opponents” of splitting Russia.
President Vladimir Putin says Russia’s offensive in Ukraine is being carried out to “unite the Russian people”.
Putin used the concept of “historic Russia” to argue that Ukrainians and Russians are one people in an interview aired Sunday as he sought to justify his 10-month offensive in Ukraine and undermine Ukraine’s sovereignty.
Russia’s “geopolitical opponents [were] with the goal of tearing apart Russia, historical Russia,” Putin said in excerpts from a program broadcast on national television Rossiya 1.
“Divide and conquer, that’s what they have always tried and still try to achieve,” Putin said.
“But our goal is different: it is to unite the Russian people,” added the Russian president.
Putin reiterated that Moscow is ready to negotiate, but said Ukraine and its Western allies have refused to hold talks.
The death toll is increasing
In southern Ukraine, the death toll in Russian attacks on the city of Kherson has risen to 16 and 64 people were injured, the region’s Ukrainian military governor reported on Sunday, as air raid sirens rang out across the country on Christmas Day.
Among the dead were three men who died clearing mines, Yaroslav Yanushevich reported on Telegram.
The Ukrainian army counted 71 attacks on the partially retaken region on Saturday, including 41 on its main metropolitan area.
Despite Russia’s withdrawal from the city, Kherson remains within reach of Moscow’s guns and under constant threat.
“Pointless War”
In his traditional Christmas message from St. Peter’s Basilica in the Vatican, Pope Francis called for an end to the “senseless” war in Ukraine.
“May the Lord inspire us to offer concrete gestures of solidarity to help all those who are suffering and may he enlighten the minds of those who have the power to silence the thunder of arms and give this senseless war an immediate… to prepare an end,” said the head of the Roman Catholic Church.
The new Associated Press agency reported Sunday that some Ukrainians, who normally celebrate Christmas like Russians do on January 7, have changed their tradition in response to Russia’s war.
The agency said that some Orthodox Ukrainians decided to celebrate the festival celebrating the birth of Jesus Christ on December 25 like members of Western Christian churches.
In October, the leadership of the Orthodox Church of Ukraine, which is not affiliated with the Russian Church and is one of the two branches of Orthodox Christianity in the country, agreed to allow believers to celebrate on December 25.
“What began on February 24 with the full-scale invasion is an awakening and an understanding that we can no longer be part of the Russian world,” Olena Paliy, a 33-year-old resident of Bobrytsia near Kyiv, told AP.