The ceasefire ordered by Russia for Orthodox Christmas, January 6-7, has been criticized by Western countries and allies of Ukraine.
Source AFP
© MIKHAIL METZEL / POOL / AFP
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Lhe Russian-ordered ceasefire for Orthodox Christmas is due to begin this Friday, January 6, in Ukraine. This first major truce since the start of the invasion in February 2022 is a gesture interpreted by kyiv and its allies as Moscow’s desire to gain time.
Following a call from the Russian Orthodox Patriarch Kirill, but also a proposal from the Turkish Head of State Recep Tayyip Erdogan, Russian President Vladimir Putin on Thursday asked his army to observe a “ceasefire across the line of contact between the parties from noon on January 6 of this year until midnight on January 7”.
He called on the Ukrainian forces to respect this truce in order to give the possibility to the Orthodox, the majority confession in Ukraine as in Russia, to “attend services on Christmas Eve, as well as on the day of the Nativity of Christ”. His Ukrainian counterpart Volodymyr Zelensky castigated this announcement which, according to him, is only an “apology with the aim of at least stopping the advance of our troops in the Donbass and bringing equipment, ammunition, and bringing men closer to our position”. “What will be the result? No more deaths,” he said.
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Volodymyr Zelensky, on the other hand, welcomed the “very important decision” of the United States and Germany, which promised kyiv the delivery of infantry armored vehicles, of the Bradley type on the American side and of the Marder model on the German side, after the announcement by France sending light tanks. Berlin has also pledged to provide a Patriot air defense battery, as Washington has already done.
Putin and his ceasefire criticized by the West
The ceasefire ordered by Moscow is the first general truce since the start of the conflict, only local agreements having been concluded so far, such as for the evacuation of civilians from the Azovstal factory in Mariupol in April. “Russia must leave the occupied territories, only then will there be a ‘temporary truce’. Keep your hypocrisy, ”reacted on Twitter an adviser to the Ukrainian presidency, Mykhailo Podoliak.
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For the American president, Vladimir Putin seeks “to give himself some air”. He “was ready to bomb hospitals, nurseries and churches […] on December 25 and on New Year’s Eve,” joked Joe Biden. This ceasefire “will do nothing to advance the prospects for peace,” reacted British Foreign Minister James Cleverly, calling for a permanent withdrawal of Russian forces. Such a truce will bring “neither freedom nor security” in Ukraine, abounded the German diplomacy.
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In his telephone conversation with Vladimir Putin, Recep Tayyip Erdogan had proposed a “unilateral ceasefire” intended to support “peace calls and negotiations between Moscow and kyiv”. Russia is ready for a “serious dialogue” with Ukraine provided that the latter complies with Russian demands and accepts the “new territorial realities” born of the invasion of this country in February, argued Vladimir Putin.
Zelensky wants a total withdrawal of Russian forces before resuming dialogue
Moscow claimed in September the annexation of four regions occupied at least partially by its army in Ukraine, despite multiple military setbacks on the ground, on the pattern of that of the Ukrainian peninsula of Crimea in March 2014. Volodymyr Zelensky insists on a total withdrawal of Russian forces from his country, Crimea included, before any dialogue with Moscow. Otherwise, he promises to take back the occupied territories by force.
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During his talks with Recep Tayyip Erdogan, Vladimir Putin accused the West of “feeding the kyiv regime with weapons and military equipment and providing it with operational and targeting information”.
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The Russian truce is being offered less than a week after a Ukrainian strike on New Year’s Eve left at least 89 people dead in Makivka, eastern Ukraine. A particularly deadly bombardment that the Russian army had to recognize, an extremely rare fact, and which aroused criticism in Russia against the military command.
Three dead in Ukraine after Thursday bombings
On the front in Ukraine, the bombardments continued Thursday with in particular the death of a woman and her 12-year-old son in a Russian bombardment in Beryslav, near Kherson, in the South, according to the deputy head of the administration presidential Kyrylo Tymoshenko. Two people were also killed and three others injured in a strike on a village in the Zaporizhia region, also in the south, according to Governor Oleksandre Staroukh.
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Residents of the eastern town of Chassiv Yar told Agence France-Presse on Thursday that a Russian missile hit a building before dawn, injuring a man and a woman.