Ukraine rips Putin after order for Orthodox Christmas truce
KYIV, Ukraine — Russian President Vladimir Putin on Thursday ordered his armed forces to observe a unilateral 36-hour ceasefire in Ukraine this weekend for the Orthodox Christmas holiday, the first such sweeping truce move in the nearly 11-month-old war. Kyiv indicated it won’t follow suit.
Putin did not appear to make his cease-fire order conditional on Ukraine’s acceptance, and it wasn’t clear whether hostilities would actually halt on the 684-mile front line or elsewhere. Ukrainian officials have previously dismissed such Russian moves as playing for time to regroup and prepare additional attacks.
As part of the effort to bolster Ukrainian forces during the winter months and ahead of an expected increase in fighting in the spring, the U.S. is sending a massive new aid package that will for the first time include several dozen Bradley fighting vehicles, U.S. officials said Thursday.
The aid totaling $2.85 billion is the largest in a series of packages of military equipment that the Pentagon has pulled from its stockpiles.
At various points during the war that began Feb. 24, Russian authorities have ordered limited, local truces to allow civilian evacuations or other humanitarian purposes. Thursday’s order was the first time Putin has directed his troops to observe a ceasefire throughout 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 and give them the opportunity
to attend services on Christmas Eve, as well as on the Day of the Nativity of Christ,” according to Putin’s order to Defense Minister Sergei Shoigu, published on the Kremlin’s website.
Putin’s order didn’t specify whether it would apply to both offensive and defensive operations. It wasn’t clear, for example, whether Russia would strike back if Ukraine kept fighting.
Ukrainian officials dismissed Putin’s move. Presidential advisor Mykhailo Podolyak tweeted that Russian forces “must leave the occupied territories — only then will it have a ‘temporary truce.’ Keep hypocrisy to yourself.”
Ukraine’s National Security Council chief Oleksiy Danilov told Ukrainian TV: “We will not negotiate any truces with them.”
He also tweeted: “What does a bunch of little Kremlin devils have to do with the Christian holiday of Christmas? Who will believe an abomination that kills children, fires at maternity homes and tortures prisoners? A cease-fire? Lies and hypocrisy. We will bite you in the singing silence of the Ukrainian night.”
In Washington, President Joe Biden said it was “interesting” that Putin was ready to bomb hospitals, nurseries
and churches on Christmas and New Year’s. “I think he’s trying to find some oxygen,” he said, without elaborating.
State Department spokesman Ned Price said Washington had “little faith in the intentions behind this announcement.”
Putin acted after the head of the Russian Orthodox Church, Patriarch Kirill, proposed a truce from noon Friday through midnight Saturday Moscow time. The Orthodox Church, which uses the Julian calendar, celebrates Christmas on Jan. 7 — later than the Gregorian calendar — although some Ukrainian Christians also mark the holiday on that date.
Kirill has previously called the war part of Russia’s “metaphysical struggle” to prevent a Western liberal ideological encroachment.
President Volodymyr Zelenskyy had proposed a Russian troop withdrawal earlier, before Dec. 25, but Moscow rejected it.
Political analyst Tatyana Stanovaya said Putin’s cease-fire order is intended to make him look reasonable. It “fits well into Putin’s logic, in which Russia is acting on the right side of history and fighting for justice,” she said.