Is iCloud required for use with iPhone6?

Just read an article on Yahoo! Tech that said,

"You’ll be greeted by iOS’s dry but helpful Setup Assistant. It’ll ask you to choose a language, connect to a WiFi network, and sign in to iCloud. If you do not already have an iCloud account, you’ll have to create one. Sorry, but there’s no convenient way around this."

Is that true? I have always chosen not to sync anything to anyone's cloud, including Apple. The recent hacking scandal reinforces my desire to never store anything on the iCloud. Do we really have to use iCloud, and at least have an iCloud account, to use the new iPhone6?