Putin ordered his army to observe a “ceasefire across the contact line between the parties from 12:00 on January 6 until 24:00 on January 7.”
A truce ordered by Russia for Christmas, which is celebrated in the country on January 7, is expected to begin today in Ukraine, the first general truce since the invasion began, a gesture interpreted by Kyiv and its allies as Moscow’s desire to gain time.
Following an appeal by the Patriarch of the Russian Orthodox Church Kirill, as well as a proposal by Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan, Russian President Vladimir Putin yesterday, Thursday, ordered his army to observe a “ceasefire along the entire contact line between the parties from 12:00 on the 6th of January until midnight on the 7th of January”.
He called on the Ukrainian forces to respect the truce in order to give the Orthodox, who make up the majority of the population in Ukraine but also in Russia, “the opportunity to take part in Christmas Eve and Christmas Day services.”
His Ukrainian counterpart Volodymyr Zelensky criticized this announcement which is nothing more than, he said, an “excuse to at least stop the advance of our troops in Donbas and bring equipment, ammunition, and approach the men of our positions”. . “What will be the result? More deaths,” he said.
Zelensky, on the other hand, welcomed the “very important decision” of the United States and Germany, which promised Kyiv the delivery of American Bradley and German Marder tanks, following France’s announcement of sending armored reconnaissance vehicles equipped with powerful guns, designated “light tanks”.
Berlin has also pledged to supply an array of Patriot anti-aircraft missiles as Washington has already done.
The truce ordered by Moscow is the first general truce since the war began as only local agreements have been reached so far, such as the evacuation of civilians from the Azovstal steelworks in Mariupol (southeast) in April.
“Russia must leave the occupied territories, only then will there be a ‘temporary truce’. Keep your hypocrisy,” Ukrainian presidential adviser Mykhailo Podoliak reacted on Twitter.
For the American president, Vladimir Putin seeks to “take a breather”. “He was ready to bomb hospitals, kindergartens and churches (…) on December 25 and New Year’s Day,” Joe Biden said.
This truce “will do nothing to advance the prospects of peace,” countered British Foreign Secretary James Cleverley, calling for the permanent withdrawal of Russian forces. Such a truce will bring “neither freedom nor security” to Ukraine, German diplomacy insisted.
In the telephone conversation he had with Vladimir Putin, Erdogan proposed a “unilateral ceasefire” to support “calls for peace and negotiations between Moscow and Kyiv”.
Russia’s proposal for a truce came less than a week after a Ukrainian New Year’s Eve strike that killed at least 89 people in Makiivka, eastern Ukraine. A particularly deadly bombing which the Russian military was forced to admit, which is extremely rare, and which caused criticism in Russia against the military command.
On the frontline in Ukraine, shelling continued yesterday mainly with the death of a woman and her 12-year-old son in Russian shelling in Berislav, near Kherson, in the south, according to the deputy head of the presidential administration Kirill Tymoshenko.
Two people were also killed and three others wounded in a strike on a village in Zaporizhia province, also in the south, according to Governor Oleksandr Starukh.
Residents of the eastern town of Chasif Yar told AFP yesterday that a Russian rocket hit a building before dawn, injuring a man and a woman.
RES-EMP
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