The first significant ceasefire in the more than the ten-month conflict that has left tens of thousands of people dead and ravaged large swaths of Ukraine devastated, Russian President Vladimir Putin issued an order on Thursday for a 36-hour ceasefire in Ukraine over Orthodox Christmas.
According to the Kremlin, Putin instructed the ceasefire to begin on January 6. The 6-7th of January is Christmas for many Orthodox Christians, including those in Russia and Ukraine.
Thursday morning, Moscow’s patriarch Kirill called for a Christmas truce between the warring parties in the Ukraine conflict.
In the order, Putin stated, “I instruct the Minister of Defence of the Russian Federation to introduce a ceasefire regime along the entire line of contact of the parties in Ukraine from 12:00 on January 6, 2023, to 24:00 on January 7, 2023.” This was in response to the request made by His Holiness Patriarch Kirill.
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The Kremlin’s statements always use Russian time.
Putin said, “We call on the Ukrainian side to declare a ceasefire and allow them to attend services on Christmas Eve, as well as on Christmas Day,” because “a large number of citizens professing Orthodoxy live in the areas of hostilities.”
Ukraine had previously rejected Kirill’s appeal, but there was no immediate response to Putin’s announcement of a ceasefire.
Mykhailo Podolyak, a senior aide to Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky, referred to the Russian Orthodox Church as a “war propagandist” who was responsible for encouraging the “mass murder” of Ukrainians and the militarization of Russia.
He stated, “The Russian Orthodox Church’s statement about the “Christmas Truce” is an element of propaganda and a cynical trap.”
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Source: Reuter