RIGA, Latvia - Russian President Vladimir Putin instructed his invading troops in Ukraine to observe a 36-hour unilateral cease-fire across the entire front to accommodate Orthodox Christmas celebrations, beginning at noon Friday and running through Saturday.
But the gesture, with Russia still occupying vast tracts of Ukrainian territory and having bombarded Ukraine with airstrikes on New Year's Eve, was quickly rebuffed in Kyiv, where a top adviser to Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky, Mykhailo Podolyak, said Russia "must leave the occupied territories - only then will it have a 'temporary truce.'"
