Ukraine, EU, US slap down Russia’s Orthodox Christmas ‘ceasefire’ proposal

Ukraine and its Western allies in the EU and US dismissed Russian President Vladimir Putin’s calls for a 36-hour Russian Orthodox Christmas ceasefire as a ploy on Thursday (5 January), unlikely to slow the war, which has entered its 11th month.

Earlier the same day, Putin ordered a ceasefire from midday on Friday after a call for a Christmas truce by Patriarch Kirill of Moscow, head of the Russian Orthodox Church.

“I instruct the Minister of Defence of the Russian Federation to introduce from noon January 6, 2023, until 24:00 January 7, 2023, a cease-fire along the entire line of contact between the parties in Ukraine,” a Kremlin statement read.

According to the announcement, the ‘ceasefire’ would begin on 6 January, when many Orthodox Christians, including those living in Russia and Ukraine, celebrate Christmas.

It would be the first major truce of the more than 10-month-old war that has claimed tens of thousands of lives and devastated large swaths of Ukraine.

“Based on the fact that a large number of citizens professing orthodoxy live in the combat areas, we call on the Ukrainian side to declare a cease-fire” so they can attend church services for Orthodox Christmas, it added.

Patriarch Kirill, the leader of the Russian Orthodox Church and a close ally of Putin, made a similar request in a message posted on the church’s website.

Ukraine spurned Moscow’s offer, saying there would be no truce until Russia withdrew its invading forces from all occupied territory.

Mykhailo Podolyak, the advisor to Ukraine’s President Volodymyr Zelenskyy, dismissed the announcement as a “cynical trap” and “an element of propaganda”, adding Russia “must leave the occupied territories – only then will it have a ‘temporary truce’. Keep hypocrisy to yourself.”

Zelenskyy later joined allies in the West in ridiculing Putin’s cease-fire announcement.

“Now they want to use the Christmas as cover to halt offensive of our boys in Donbas at least for a while and redeploy their military vehicles, ammunition and mobilised closer to our position,” he said in a statement.

“What will that bring? Just more casualties,” he added.

European Council President Charles Michel said on Thursday that Putin’s call is “hypocritical” and Russia’s only way to restore peace is to withdraw its troops from the country.

“Withdrawal of Russian troops is the only serious option to restore peace and security. Announcement of unilateral ceasefire is as bogus and hypocritical as the illegal and grotesque annexations and accompanying referenda,” Michel said in a tweet.

US President Joe Biden said when asked about the proposal that Putin is “trying to find some oxygen” by floating a 36-hour ceasefire.

“I’m reluctant to respond to anything that Putin says. I found it interesting that he was willing to bomb hospitals and nurseries and churches (…) on the 25th and New Year’s,” Biden told reporters at the White House.

Meanwhile, Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdoğan continued efforts to lay the ground for talks between Russia and Ukraine in a call with Zelenskyy, following one with Putin.

Erdoğan reiterated that Ankara could mediate talks between the two countries and offered help with efforts to create a safe zone around the Zaporizhzhia nuclear power plant occupied by Russia.

Zelenskyy discussed his so-called ‘peace formula’, pre-conditions to end the war, with Erdoğan, he said in a tweet.

The formula, presented during the G20 summit in November, would see Russia leaving all of the occupied territories in Ukraine as one of the main conditions for ending the war.

[Edited by Alice Taylor]

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