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“War on Christmas” will be reality this year for many Ukrainians, despite the Trump administration’s best efforts to end the nearly four-year conflict in time for the holy holiday.
Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky on Monday warned that Russia may be plotting a massive strike on Kyiv for Christmas, as hopes for a holiday miracle cease-fire deal appear far-off with the latest deadly attack on Ukraine’s energy infrastructure knocking out power, leaving civilians shivering in the cold.
“We understand that precisely on these days they may – this is in their nature – carry out massive strikes on Christmas,” he said of the Russians in an X post. “And today we had a Staff meeting on this, and the number one issue was air defense: the protection of our cities, villages, and communities, especially on the 23rd, 24th, and 25th.”
US and international allies had earlier proposed a temporary Christmas cease-fire for a brief peace in honor of the holiday, but Russian President Vladimir Putin rejected the idea.
That prompted Zelensky to instruct Ukraine to be on guard.
“This needs to be paid attention to. The military must pay attention directly, ensure protection as much as they can,” he said in a post to X. “Everything is very difficult, because there is, unfortunately, a shortage of air defense systems.
“And people also need to pay attention – serious attention – during these days, because these ‘comrades’ may launch such strikes. There is nothing sacred for them,” he added.
His remarks proved true hours later, when Moscow launched more than 650 drones and three dozen missiles into Ukraine that night, killed at least three people — including a 4-year-old child — and wiping out power in 13 regions in frigid temperatures.
Russia celebrated the military assault, with the defense ministry touting the “massive strike by ground-based and airborne long-range precision weapons” on “Ukraine’s military-industrial sector and their energy facilities.”
“The goals of the strike were achieved. All the designated targets were hit,” the Russian defense ministry said in a statement.
Zelensky said the attack shows Moscow has little interest in stopping bloodshed. Instead, Russia has continued targeting critical infrastructure in what Ukrainian officials say is an effort to break civilian morale during the coldest months of the year.
The renewed attacks on the power grid only deepened Kyiv’s concerns that Russia would escalate its strikes over Christmas, when public gatherings and energy demand increase, as it did last year.
President Trump’s Ukraine war negotiators had previously sought to secure a final peace plan agreement between Kyiv and Moscow by Christmas.
Special Envoy Steve Witkoff and Jared Kushner have made marked progress in discussions with the Ukrainians — developing four separate but related documents to end the war. However, talks with Russians over the weekend were less productive, and the Kremlin has yet to agree to anything.
Now, any expectations of a silent night on Christmas in Kyiv have evaporated.
“We sense that America wants to reach a final agreement and from our side there is full cooperation,” Zelensky said on Monday. “The key is that Russia must not sabotage this diplomacy and must take ending the war 100% seriously. If it doesn’t, then additional pressure on Russia must follow.”
Pressure on Russia’s economy through Trump’s sanctions on Moscow — combined with Kyiv’s retaliatory strikes on Moscow’s oil refineries — have plummeted Russia’s flagship Urals crude oil to roughly $34 a barrel, according to price analysis by Argus Media.
It’s a sign that the move designed by the Trump administration to help push Russia to want to end its war on Ukraine is already having an impact.
Notably, Russia celebrates the Christian holiday on a different date — Jan. 7 — in accordance with the observance of the Russian Orthodox Church. Ukraine observed the same date until Moscow’s invasion, with Kyiv swapping the date to Dec. 25 in 2023 as a symbolic move to align itself with the West.
Zelensky on Tuesday said the government would consider changing additional holiday observance dates held-over from Soviet times to further de-Russify the independent nation, but declined to specify which could be changed.
Still, it’s unlikely that any peace plan will be signed even by Russian Christmas as Moscow continues to resist real negotiations as Putin pledged last week he would accept nothing less than Ukraine’s total surrender — something Secretary of State Marco Rubio on Friday said is a nonstarter.
“Wars end generally in one of two ways: surrender by one side or a negotiated settlement,” Rubio said. “We don’t see surrender anytime in the near future by either side, and so only a negotiated settlement gives us the opportunity to end this war.”
English (US)