Russian President Vladimir Putin announced a temporary ceasefire between the Russian side in the war against Ukraine for the duration of Orthodox Christmas. Nino Absedza, a commentator on Russian affairs, discussed the news with Gideon Oko on 103fm and commented on the president’s announcement.
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“It’s dramatic because it hasn’t happened yet, a little over a year into this terrible war, Russia hasn’t announced a cease-fire and indeed it’s happening,” Absedza noted. “We must understand that the church in Russia always goes hand in hand with the kingdom, it’s been like this for a thousand years, and here, Putin very quickly makes the decision and there will indeed be a ceasefire from the Russian side.”
She explained that “it is the holiday in the Orthodox world, in the entire Christian world. There are a few countries in the world that still celebrate Christmas on 7.1, but almost the whole world has switched to celebrating on December 25. There are Russia, Ukraine, Georgia and Serbia left. Putin decides to be ‘ and to stop the fighting. On the one hand it’s very dramatic, on the other hand the world is watching, and the Ukrainians, and they say ‘come on, if you want to be serious, get over yourself and get out of Ukraine altogether’. That’s more or less what the Americans are saying. It will be a unilateral ceasefire , not mutual”.
Absedza said that Ukraine does not respect Putin’s request for a cease-fire, and said that “They said, ‘We can start talking about a cease-fire only when the last Russian soldier leaves the territory of sovereign Ukraine.’ Actually, it doesn’t lead anywhere because this war is not close to the end. Unfortunately, the end is not yet in sight. For a tango, you need two, to end a war, surely and surely.”
“None of the sides wants, maybe wants to but can’t end the war. The Ukrainians, even if they wanted to end it now, and they are definitely the good and just side of this story, they can’t because it’s not a war between Russia and Ukraine, it’s a war between Russia and the West collectively , and as long as the West is on Ukraine’s side, then the Ukrainian side currently has no reason to stop as soon as they win in all respects, media and military,” she explained.
Vladimir Putin speaks: “Almost the entire military potential of NATO is used against Russia”, photo: Reuters
“The Russian side doesn’t want and can’t stop the fighting because they didn’t get the picture of victory, they became the bad boy of the world and they have to justify to their people why this whole tragedy happened in the first place. So now, it takes two, and the West doesn’t make any noises that it wants to talk with Russia, and Russia’s answers are ‘we are ready to talk'”. She added that “Erdogan called Putin yesterday and he also apparently asked for a ceasefire, and Putin’s answer was ‘Russia is always ready’, but only after its conditions are met.”
When Absedza was asked about Putin’s mental state, she replied that “We didn’t know about him, we don’t know and we won’t know. This is Russia, this is not America. Some of the country’s citizens also maintain their right not to publish a story about the state of the president’s health, personally. We don’t know What are his children’s names, do you want us to know what his health is like? He can be very sick or healthy as an ox in the exact same country because we have no information on the matter.”
Assisted in the preparation of the article: Shani Romano 103fm