KYIV, Ukraine – Russian President Vladimir Putin on Thursday ordered a 36-hour ceasefire in Ukraine to run throughout Orthodox Christmas, a transfer rapidly dismissed by war-battered Kyiv and its allies.
Putin’s directive to his troops was introduced days after Moscow suffered its deadliest reported lack of the invasion, following 11 months of brutal fight — and as Ukraine’s allies indicated that contemporary army assist was on the best way.
Both nations have a good time Orthodox Christmas and the Russian chief’s order got here following ceasefire calls from Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan and Russia’s non secular chief Patriarch Kirill, a staunch Putin supporter.
“Taking into account the appeal of His Holiness Patriarch Kirill, I instruct the defense minister of the Russian Federation to introduce… a ceasefire along the entire line of contact between the sides in Ukraine,” stated a Kremlin assertion.
It will run from 12:00 (0900 GMT) January 6, till 24:00 (2100 GMT) on January 7, the Kremlin stated.
Kyiv rapidly denounced the transfer.
Russia “must leave the occupied territories — only then will it have a ‘temporary truce’,” Ukrainian presidential adviser Mykhailo Podolyak wrote on Twitter. “Keep hypocrisy to yourself.”
US President Joe Biden was equally dismissive of Putin’s announcement.
“He was ready to bomb hospitals and nurseries and churches” on December 25 and on New Year’s Day, he stated. “I think he’s trying to find some oxygen.”
And German Foreign Minister Annalena Baerbock wrote on Twitter: “A so-called ceasefire brings neither freedom nor security to people living in daily fear under Russian occupation.”
Orthodox Christmas
Russia occupies components of jap and southern Ukraine after 11 months of combating, however Kyiv has reclaimed swathes of its territory and this week claimed a New Year’s strike that killed scores of Moscow’s troops.
After votes that had been internationally branded as farces, Russia annexed the Donetsk, Lugansk, Zaporizhzhia and Kherson areas regardless of not totally controlling them.
Putin is open to dialogue with Ukraine if Kyiv acknowledges “the new territorial realities”, stated the Kremlin, in a abstract of his phone dialog with Erdogan Thursday.
“The Russian side emphasized the destructive role of Western states, pumping the Kyiv regime with weapons and military equipment, providing it with operational information and targets,” it added.
The Kremlin’s response was directed to the ceasefire attraction by Russia’s non secular chief Patriarch Kirill, an outspoken supporter of Putin.
The 76-year-old Orthodox chief has given his blessing to Russian troops combating in Ukraine and delivered closely anti-Western and anti-Kyiv sermons all through the battle.
Kirill made his attraction “so that Orthodox people can attend services on Christmas Eve and on the day of the Nativity of Christ”, he stated on the church’s official web site Thursday.
The Kremlin’s resolution to ship troops into Ukraine in February 2022 resulted in lots of clerics who had continued to stay loyal to Kirill turning away from Moscow.
In May, the Moscow-backed department of Ukraine’s Orthodox Church severed ties with Russia, citing his lack of condemnation of the combating.
More arms for Ukraine
News of Putin’s ceasefire order got here as German authorities sources informed AFP Thursday each Berlin and Washington had been planning a “qualitative new step” of their weapons deliveries to Ukraine.
“We are constantly looking at what more we can do in terms of military support,” Germany’s Baerbock informed journalists Thursday, together with “defensive weapons” and arms wanted to “free occupied territory”.
Germany’s Chancellor Olaf Scholz has confronted renewed calls to ship Leopard gentle tanks, lengthy sought by Kyiv, after French President Emmanuel Macron introduced the supply of French-made AMX-10 RC gentle tanks to Ukraine.
Macron’s announcement on Wednesday made France the primary western nation to announce the supply of such weapons to Ukraine.
“The argument constantly advanced by the chancellery that Germany must not go it alone is absolutely out of date,” stated Marie-Agnes Strack-Zimmermann, who heads the German parliament’s protection committee.
“France is once again taking on the role that was expected of Germany, and is going ahead alone,” she informed AFP.
Worst single loss
Putin’s ceasefire order got here a day after Moscow lifted its reported toll in its worst single reported loss from a Ukrainian strike to 89 useless.
Ukraine’s army strategic communications unit has stated practically 400 Russian troopers died within the city of Makiivka in jap Ukraine, held by pro-Russian forces. Even Russian commentators have stated the dying toll could also be far larger than the Kremlin’s figures.
The lethal Makiivka strike got here after months of discontent inside Russia in direction of the army following a sequence of battlefield defeats and a vastly unpopular mobilization drive. — Agence France-Presse
