Russian President Vladimir Putin has ordered ceasefire war a 36-hour starting at noon this Friday along the entire front line in Ukraine, the Kremlin has reported. According to the note from the Russian Presidency, the decision of the head of state is in response to the call of the Patriarch of the Russian Orthodox Church, Kiril, to establish a Christmas truce, which Orthodox believers celebrate on January 7.
“Proceeding from the fact that a large number of citizens professing Orthodoxy live in the zones of hostilities, we call on the Ukrainian side to declare a ceasefire and allow them to attend religious services on Christmas Eve , as well as on Christmas Day. “, Putin said.
It is the first time that the Russian president has ordered a ceasefire on all fronts since he launched his military campaign in Ukraine on February 24 with the aim of “denazifying and demilitarizing” the neighboring country. In March, he held a temporary ceasefire in Mariupol to open a humanitarian corridor that would allow the evacuation of civilians from the city.
Zelenskyy assures that it is “a cover”
For the Ukrainian president, Volodymyr Zelenskyy, Russia wants to use the truce “as a cover to stop our advances in Donbas and bring more equipment.” In a speech, he has stated that the war will end when Russian soldiers leave Ukraine or are expelled.
The idea of the ceasefire has been branded as a “propaganda element” , as well as a “cynical trap” , by the adviser to the Ukrainian Presidency, Mykhailo Podolyak, on his profile on the social network Twitter. Shortly after the decision became known, he wrote that “Ukraine does not attack foreign territory and does not kill civilians”, but only “destroys members of the occupation army on its territory”. “Only then will it be a ‘temporary truce’. Keep the hypocrisy to yourself ,” he has settled.
has also reacted The Ukrainian Defense Ministry , describing the truce as “cynicism”. “The aggressor, who shelled peaceful Ukrainian cities on December 24 and 25 and on New Year’s Eve, proposed a Christmas ‘ceasefire’ on January 6 and 7. After 10 months of genocide, after hundreds of Ukrainian churches destroyed, isn’t it too late for the Kremlin to think about God?” he wrote on his Twitter account.
The international community calls for a “just peace”
The President of Turkey, Recep Tayyip Erdoğan, also asked his Russian counterpart in a telephone conversation on Thursday for a “unilateral” ceasefire to negotiate a “fair solution” to the war in Ukraine.
“Calls for peace and negotiations between Moscow and Kiev must be backed by a unilateral ceasefire ,” said the Turkish leader, who has tried to play a mediating role in the war in Ukraine, in which Ankara is backing Kiev. and defends its territorial integrity, including Crimea, but without imposing sanctions on Russia and maintaining a good relationship with Moscow.
On the other hand, the president of the United States, Joe biden, has indicated that he believes that with the decision to make a ceasefire, Putin is trying to “take oxygen” . “I found it interesting that he was willing to bomb hospitals, nurseries and churches, on the 25th and on New Years,” he added. The Pentagon meanwhile has been skeptical of the announcement “given Russia’s long history of disinformation and propaganda,” a spokesman said.
Also from German diplomacy, which have affirmed that the “supposed” Russian ceasefire will not bring “neither freedom nor security to the people who live daily in fear under the Russian occupation.” “If Putin wanted peace, he would bring his soldiers home and the war would end . But apparently he wants to continue the war, after a brief interruption,” Foreign Affairs Minister Annalena Baerbock lamented in a message on Twitter.
The head of the UN, for his part, has applauded any truce in Ukraine, but has recalled that it will not replace a “just peace in accordance with the UN charter and international law.”
Ten months after the start of the war, Russia and Ukraine have entered the new year with hardened diplomatic positions. Following major battlefield victories in the second half of 2022, kyiv is increasingly confident that it can drive the Russian military out of most of its territory.
Putin has been unwilling to discuss giving up his territorial gains despite mounting losses among his troops, after he ordered the first reservist call-up since World War 2.
