The Russian president has asked his troops to stop the fighting for two days on the Orthodox Christmas, which will be celebrated in Ukraine.
Russian President Vladimir Putin on Thursday ordered his forces to implement a ceasefire in Ukraine on January 6-7 on the occasion of Orthodox Christmas, after a request from Patriarch Kirill, the Kremlin said.
Vladimir Putin-the-talk-trends source: thehindubusinessline.com
“In view of the appeal of His Holiness Patriarch Kirill, I instruct the Russian Minister of Defense to introduce a ceasefire regime along the entire line of contact between the parties in Ukraine from noon on January 6 of this year until midnight on January 7,” he said in the Kremlin statement.
The Russian president also called on the Ukrainian forces to respect this truce in order to give the possibility to the Orthodox, the majority faith in Ukraine as in Russia, “to attend services on Christmas Eve, as well as on the day of the Nativity of Christ. “.
Erdogan as mediator
TURKEY-POLITICS source: time.com
This ceasefire is the first general truce since the beginning of the war. Only local agreements have been concluded so far for evacuating civilians from the Azovstal factory in Mariupol (southeast) in April. “Russia must leave the occupied territories; there will only be a ‘temporary truce.’ Keep your hypocrisy,” reacted on Twitter the adviser to the Ukrainian presidency Mykhaïlo Podolak.
Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan also urged Vladimir Putin on Thursday to establish a “unilateral ceasefire” in Ukraine. However, the Turkish president, mediating in the conflict, also spoke Thursday with his Ukrainian counterpart, Volodymyr Zelensky, without mentioning a request for a “unilateral ceasefire.”
Vladimir Putin had initially replied to him that Russia was ready for a “serious dialogue” with Ukraine on the condition that the latter comply with Russian demands and accept the “new territorial realities” of this country’s invasion in February.
Putin still denounces the “destructive role” of the West
Moscow claimed in September the annexation of four regions occupied at least partially by its army in Ukraine, despite a series of 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.
During his discussions with Recep Tayyip Erdogan, Vladimir Putin again denounced the “destructive role of Western countries” in the conflict because of their arms deliveries, crucial for the Ukrainian war effort. The Russian head of state accused the West of “feeding the Kyiv regime with weapons and military equipment and providing it with operational and targeting information.”
A member of NATO, Turkey has not associated itself with the sanctions against Russia and is trying to maintain a position of mediator between Kyiv and Moscow. It thus played a crucial role, particularly in the agreement allowing the export of Ukrainian cereals. Russian Patriarch Kirill has had little influence in Ukraine since the country established an independent Church in 2018-2019, and the one that remained loyal to Moscow severed ties with Russia. , in May, due to the invasion.
New arms deliveries to Ukraine
The truce was announced by Putin less than a week after a Ukrainian strike on New Year’s Eve killed at least 89 people in Makiivka, eastern Ukraine. A particularly deadly bombardment that the Russian army had to recognize, a scarce fact, and which aroused criticism in Russia against the military command.
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 storm in Beryslav, near Kherson, in the south, according to the deputy head of the presidential administration 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 Oleksandr Staroukh.
Residents of the eastern town of Chassis Yar told Agence France-Presse on Thursday that a Russian missile hit a building before dawn, injuring a man and a woman. The blast left piles of rubble and shattered glass outside the building and blew out the windows of a nearby building and hospital. In this context, the United States and Germany plan to take a “new qualitative step” in their arms deliveries to Ukraine. According to several media, Berlin intends to deliver armored infantry fighting vehicles of the Marder type.
