Putin orders Ukraine ceasefire for Orthodox Christmas.
Putin orders Ukraine ceasefire for Orthodox Christmas. It has been reported that Russian President Vladimir Putin requested Defense Minister Sergei Shoigu to issue a ceasefire in Ukraine on Thursday, December 25, in honor of the Orthodox Christmas holiday.
According to RIA, Putin issued an order to the Russian defense minister saying, “Given the appeal of His Holiness Patriarch Kirill, I instruct the Minister of Defense of the Russian Federation to introduce a ceasefire regime along the entire line of contact between the parties in Ukraine from noon on January 6 to 24:00 on January 7.”
Putin claimed that Russia’s Orthodox bishop had requested a ceasefire for Christmas so that believers “could attend services on Christmas Eve and day of the Nativity of Christ.”
An adviser from Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy’s office called the ceasefire calls from the Russian Orthodox Church earlier in the day a “cynical trap.” However, Zelenskyy has yet to make a public statement responding to Putin’s order.
In the words of Mykhailo Podolyak, quoted by the Ukrainian government-run news agency Ukinform, “[the] ROC is not an authority for global Orthodoxy and acts as a ‘war propagandist. The Russian Orthodox Church has advocated for the militarization of the Russian Federation to the point of committing genocide against the Ukrainian people.
Thus, ROC’s statement about a Christmas truce is a cynical trap and a piece of propaganda,” the statement continued.
When Turkish President Tayyip Erdogan called Putin earlier in the day, he echoed the bishop’s call for a “unilateral ceasefire” and a “vision for a fair solution.”
Putin’s order to cease hostilities is the first he’s issued since the war began, and it comes just two days after Zelenskyy warned that Russia was preparing for a major offensive to “turn the tide” of the war.
According to Zelenskyy, Russia will “throw everything they have” at Ukrainian forces as they attempt to drive Russian troops out of five regions of Ukraine.
In December, Putin also instructed his defense ministers to reorganize the country’s war effort by providing more ammunition and other necessities to frontline troops, increasing the country’s missile arsenal, and getting Russia’s “nuclear triad” ready for action.
Rebekah Koffler, an expert on Russia and a former DIA intelligence officer for Russian Doctrine & Strategy, agreed with Zelenskyy’s office on Thursday, calling the order a “set-up.”
She told Fox News Digital that Putin was aware Ukrainian forces would continue to operate despite the ceasefire because they were suspicious of the Russian intentions. “As soon as Ukrainians reject the ceasefire, Russia will label them atheists.
She explained that Putin had played a classic checkmate in which Zelenskyy could not win.
