Russian president Vladimir Putin has ordered Moscow’s armed forces to observe a 36-hour ceasefire in Ukraine this weekend for the Russian Orthodox Christmas holiday, the first such sweeping truce move in the nearly 11-month-old war.
Kyiv indicated it would not follow suit.
Mr Putin did not appear to make his ceasefire order conditional on a Ukrainian agreement to follow suit, and it was not clear whether hostilities would actually halt on the 1,100-kilometre front line.
Ukrainian president Volodymyr Zelenskiy dismissed the Russian move as playing for time to regroup its invasion forces and prepare additional attacks.
At various points during the war that started on February 24th, Mr Putin has ordered limited and local truces to allow evacuations of civilians or other humanitarian purposes.
Thursday’s order was the first time Mr Putin 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 ceasefire and give them the opportunity to attend services on Christmas Eve, as well as on the Day of the Nativity of Christ,” according to Mr Putin’s order, addressed to defence minister Sergei Shoigu and published on the Kremlin’s website.
Ukrainian officials from Mr Zelenskiy on down dismissed Mr Putin’s moves.
In his nightly video address, Mr Zelenskiy stopped short of stating his forces would reject Mr Putin’s request to suspend fighting, instead questioning the Russian leadership’s motives.
“Now they want to use Christmas as a cover to stop the advance of our guys in the Donbas for a while and bring equipment, ammunition and mobilised people closer to our positions,” Mr Zelenskiy said.
“What will it give? Just another increase in the count of losses.”
Mr Zelenskiy claimed that since he unveiled a peace plan in November, almost 110,000 Russian soldiers have been killed, and he accused the Kremlin of planning the fighting pause “to continue the war with renewed vigour”.
The most comprehensive recent western estimate of Russia’s military losses was from a senior US military official, who said in November that about 100,000 Russian soldiers had been killed or wounded.
Russian authorities have not provided any recent figure for their military casualties.
Zelenskiy adviser Mykhailo Podolyak tweeted that Russian forces “must leave the occupied territories – only then will it have a ‘temporary truce.’ Keep hypocrisy to yourself”.
The head of Ukraine’s National Security Council, 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.”
US president Joe Biden declined to comment directly but said at the White House on Thursday it was “interesting” that Mr Putin was ready to bomb hospitals, nurseries and churches on Christmas and new year.
“I think he’s trying to find some oxygen,” he said.
Mr Putin acted at the suggestion of the head of the Russian Orthodox Church, Patriarch Kirill, who proposed a truce from noon on Friday through to midnight on Saturday local time.
The Russian Orthodox Church, which uses the ancient Julian calendar, celebrates Christmas on January 7th – later than the Gregorian calendar – although some Christians in Ukraine also mark the holiday on that date.
Mr Podolyak had earlier dismissed Patriarch Kirill’s call as “a cynical trap and an element of propaganda”.
President Volodymyr Zelenskiy had proposed a Russian troop withdrawal earlier, before December 25th, but Russia rejected it.
Patriarch Kirill has previously justified the war as part of Russia’s “metaphysical struggle” to prevent a liberal ideological encroachment from the West.
Mr Putin spoke by phone with Turkey’s president on Thursday and the Kremlin said he “reaffirmed Russia’s openness to a serious dialogue” with Ukrainian authorities.
Turkish president Recep Tayyip Erdogan urged Mr Putin to implement a “unilateral ceasefire”, according to a statement from the Turkish president’s office.
Mr Erdogan also told Mr Zelensky later by telephone that Turkey was ready to mediate a “lasting peace”.
He has made such an offer frequently.
It has already helped broker a deal allowing Ukraine to export millions of tons of grain, and it has facilitated a prisoner swap.
Russia’s professed readiness came with the usual preconditions: that “Kyiv authorities fulfil the well-known and repeatedly stated demands and recognise new territorial realities”, the Kremlin said, referring to Moscow’s insistence that Ukraine recognise Crimea as part of Russia and acknowledge other illegal territorial gains.
Previous attempts at peace talks have fallen at that hurdle, as Ukraine demands that Russia withdraws from occupied areas at the very least.
Elsewhere, the head of Nato said he detected no change in Moscow’s stance on Ukraine, insisting that the Kremlin “wants a Europe where they can control a neighbouring country”.
“We have no indications that President Putin has changed his plans, his goals for Ukraine,” Nato secretary general Jens Stoltenberg said in Oslo.
Ukraine’s western allies have renewed a vow to keep supporting Kyiv for as long as it takes to defeat Russia.
In the latest pledge of military help, the French Defence Ministry said it plans talks soon with its Ukrainian counterpart on delivering armoured combat vehicles.
France’s presidency says it will be the first time this type of western-made wheeled tank destroyer is sent to Ukraine’s military.
Also, US president Joe Biden said Bradley Fighting Vehicles, a medium armoured combat vehicle that can serve as a troop carrier, could be sent to Ukraine.
The fighting in Ukraine has increasingly become a war of attrition in recent weeks, as winter sets in.
Kyrylo Tymoshenko, deputy head of the Ukrainian presidential office, said on Thursday at least five civilians were killed and eight wounded across the country by Russian shelling in the previous 24 hours.
The ongoing intense battle for the eastern city of Bakhmut has left 60 per cent of the city in ruins, Donetsk governor Pavlo Kyrylenko said.
Ukrainian defenders were holding the Russians back, but the Kremlin’s forces have pummelled the city with months of relentless shelling.
Taking the city in the Donbas region, an expansive industrial area bordering Russia, would not only give Mr Putin a major battlefield gain after months of setbacks, but it would also rupture Ukraine’s supply lines and open the way for Moscow’s forces to press on towards key Ukrainian strongholds in Donetsk.
