{"id":467957,"date":"2025-12-24T02:37:11","date_gmt":"2025-12-24T02:37:11","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/467957\/"},"modified":"2025-12-24T02:37:11","modified_gmt":"2025-12-24T02:37:11","slug":"ukraine-war-briefing-pope-leo-expresses-great-sadness-at-russian-rejection-of-truce-calls-ukraine","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/467957\/","title":{"rendered":"Ukraine war briefing: Pope Leo expresses \u2018great sadness\u2019 at Russian rejection of truce calls | Ukraine"},"content":{"rendered":"
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    Pope Leo XIV has called for a global truce on Christmas Day, expressing \u201cgreat sadness\u201d that \u201capparently Russia rejected a request\u201d for one<\/strong>. \u201cI am renewing my request to all people of good will to respect a day of peace \u2013 at least on the feast of the birth of our saviour,\u201d Leo told reporters at his residence near Rome on Tuesday. Russia has repeatedly rejected calls for a ceasefire in its war on Ukraine, saying that would only give a military advantage to Kyiv. The pope said: \u201cAmong the things that cause me great sadness is the fact that Russia has apparently rejected a request for a truce.\u201d Referring to conflicts in general, Leo said: \u201cI hope they will listen and there will be 24 hours of peace in the whole world.\u201d<\/p>\n<\/li>\n

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    A massive Russian drone and missile attack on Ukraine has killed three people and cut power to several Ukrainian regions<\/strong> two days before Christmas and as the country enters a period of very cold weather, report Shaun Walker and Pjotr Sauer<\/a>. Russia sent more than 650 drones and more than 30 missiles into Ukraine in the attack, which began overnight and continued into Tuesday morning, local officials said. At least three people were killed, including a four-year-old child. Poland scrambled fighter jets to protect its airspace during the strike, the country\u2019s army said. Ukrainian president Volodymyr Zelenskyy said on Telegram: \u201cA strike before Christmas, when people want to be with their families, at home, in safety \u2026 Putin cannot accept the fact that we must stop killing.\u201d<\/p>\n<\/li>\n

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    Ukraine struck Russian oil and gas infrastructure, hitting a petrochemical plant <\/strong>in southern Russia\u2019s Stavropol region. Regional governor Vladimir Vladimirov said a fire had engulfed the industrial area, while footage on Russian media channels showed towering flames there.<\/p>\n<\/li>\n

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    The attacks came after weekend talks in Miami involving Donald Trump\u2019s envoy Steve Witkoff and Russian and Ukrainian representatives<\/strong> in separate meetings, which Witkoff called \u201cconstructive\u201d<\/a> but that showed no apparent breakthroughs. Zelenskyy said he was briefed on the state of the talks on Tuesday and that \u201cseveral draft documents have now been prepared\u201d, including an outline for ending the war, options for Ukraine\u2019s future security guarantees and plans for the country\u2019s postwar reconstruction.<\/p>\n<\/li>\n

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    Russia opened a criminal case on Wednesday after an incident in southern Moscow injured traffic police officers<\/strong>, the country\u2019s State Investigative Committee said. Several explosions were heard in the area where a Russian general was killed by a car bomb on Monday, the Telegram channels Baza and Shot Telegram reported. The channels, which have sources in Russia\u2019s law enforcement agencies, said that according to witnesses, a car detonated. The reports could not be independently verified. Lt Gen Fanil Sarvarov was killed<\/a> on Monday when a bomb exploded under his car in southern Moscow, Russian investigators said, adding they were looking at possible involvement by Ukrainian special services.<\/p>\n<\/li>\n

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    Ukraine pulled out troops from a town in the east after fierce battles<\/strong>, the military said on Tuesday. Kyiv had to withdraw the forces from Siversk, a town in the embattled Donetsk region on the way to two last strongholds held by Ukraine. Russia announced the capture of Siversk almost two weeks ago. The Ukrainian army said that \u201cto preserve the lives of our soldiers and the combat capability of our units, Ukrainian defenders have withdrawn from the settlement\u201d of Siversk, adding that fighting was still ongoing on the outskirts.<\/p>\n<\/li>\n

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    A Russian strike could collapse the internal radiation shelter at the defunct Chernobyl nuclear power station in Ukraine<\/strong>, the plant\u2019s director has said. Sergiy Tarakanov told Agence France-Presse that fully restoring the shelter could take three to four years and warned that another Russian strike could cause the inner shell to collapse. \u201cIf a missile or drone hits it directly, or even falls somewhere nearby \u2013 for example, an Iskander [short-range ballistic missile], God forbid \u2013 it will cause a mini-earthquake in the area,\u201d he said in an interview conducted last week. \u201cNo one can guarantee that the shelter facility will remain standing after that. That is the main threat.\u201d<\/p>\n<\/li>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Pope Leo XIV has called for a global truce on Christmas Day, expressing \u201cgreat sadness\u201d that \u201capparently Russia…\n","protected":false},"author":3,"featured_media":467958,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[5],"tags":[50,103],"class_list":{"0":"post-467957","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-world","8":"tag-news","9":"tag-world"},"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/pubeurope.com\/@us\/115772225177434319","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/467957","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/3"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=467957"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/467957\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/467958"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=467957"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=467957"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=467957"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}