Ukraine had already dismissed the halt - due to last until the end of Saturday (2100 GMT) - as a strategy by Russia to gain time to regroup its forces and bolster its defences following a series of battlefield reversals.
President Volodymyr Zelenskyy said the unilateral ceasefire "cannot and should not be taken seriously" while a close advisor said Russia "must leave the occupied territories" for there to be any real let up in hostilities.
United States President Joe Biden was equally dismissive, saying Putin was just "trying to find some oxygen".
Since the invasion began on Feb 24 last year, Russia has occupied parts of eastern and southern Ukraine, but Kyiv has reclaimed swathes of its territory and this week claimed a New Year's strike that killed scores of Moscow's troops.
The Kremlin said on Thursday that during a telephone conversation with Erdogan, Putin had told the Turkish leader Moscow was ready for dialogue if Kyiv recognises "new territorial realities".
He was referring to Russia's claim to have annexed four regions of Ukraine, including Donetsk, Lugansk, Zaporizhzhia and Kherson regions - despite not fully controlling them.
In Bakhmut, located in the Donetsk region, dozens of civilians gathered at a building used as a base for disbursing humanitarian aid, where volunteers organised a Christmas Eve celebration less than an hour after the ceasefire was to go into effect, handing out mandarins, apples and cookies.
The streets of the largely bombed-out city were mostly empty save for military vehicles. Shelling was lighter on Friday than it had been in recent days.
Pavlo Diachenko, a police officer in Bakhmut, said he doubted the ceasefire would mean much to the city's civilians even if it had been respected.
"What can a church holiday mean for them? They are shelling every day and night and almost every day there are people killed," he said.
Kirill, 76, made his ceasefire appeal "so that Orthodox people can attend services on Christmas Eve and on the day of the Nativity of Christ", he said on the church's official website on Thursday.
But there was widespread scepticism in the streets of Kyiv to the gesture.
"You can never trust them, never ... Whatever they promise, they don't deliver," said Olena Fedorenko, a 46-year-old from the war-scarred city of Mykolaiv in southern Ukraine.
MORE ARMS FOR UKRAINE
News of Putin's ceasefire order came as Germany and the US pledged to provide additional military aid for Kyiv, with Biden saying the promised equipment comes at a "critical point" in the war.
Washington and Berlin said in a joint statement that they will respectively provide Kyiv with Bradley and Marder infantry fighting vehicles.
Putin's ceasefire order came a day after Moscow lifted its reported toll in its worst single reported loss from a Ukrainian strike to 89 dead.
Ukraine's military strategic communications unit has said nearly 400 Russian soldiers died in the town of Makiivka in eastern Ukraine, held by pro-Russian forces. Russian commentators have said the death toll may be far higher than the Kremlin's figures.
https://news.google.com/__i/rss/rd/articles/CBMiYWh0dHBzOi8vd3d3LmNoYW5uZWxuZXdzYXNpYS5jb20vd29ybGQvc3RyaWtlcy1lYXN0LXVrcmFpbmUtZGVzcGl0ZS1wdXRpbnMtY2Vhc2VmaXJlLW9yZGVyLTMxODc5NDbSAQA?oc=5
2023-01-06 12:43:35Z
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