Did Putin Want Ukraine to Reject the Ceasefire? Russian President Vladimir Putin on Thursday called for a 36-hour ceasefire to celebrate Russian Orthodox Christmas – but Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy won’t agree to it.
The Kremlin suggested that a ceasefire take place between noon on Friday and midnight on Saturday, allowing Russians to celebrate Christmas on January 7.
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“Due to the fact that a large number of citizens of the Orthodox faith live in several areas of the conflict zone, we call on the Ukrainian side to observe a ceasefire and allow them to visit Christmas Eve services, as well as those on the day of the birth of Christ,” a statement from the Kremlin reads.
Putin reportedly made the suggestion in response to an identical request from the leader of the Moscow Patriarchate of the Russian Orthodox Church, Patriarch Kirill.
The announcement also came on the same day that U.S. officials confirmed a new $2.8 billion military aid package that would include 50 Bradley Fighting Vehicles, following weeks of speculation about whether or not the tracked armored fighting vehicle platform would be provided to Ukrainian soldiers.
Zelenskyy Says No
Kyiv rejected Putin’s request for a ceasefire on Thursday, with the country’s foreign minister stating that it “cannot and should not be taken seriously.”
Writing on Twitter, Ukrainian presidential adviser Mykhailo Podolyak said that there should not be a “temporary truce” until the Russians completely withdraw from all territories they currently occupy in Ukraine. Podolyak also slammed the move as a “propaganda gesture” and suggested that Putin was trying to trick European countries into believing he was acting in a “humanistic” way.
Is This What Putin Wanted in Ukraine?
Christmas truces have been seen before. During World War One, a series of widespread unofficial truces were declared across the Western Front. Soldiers left the trenches and celebrated Christmas before returning to the trenches and continuing the war.
Putin’s suggestion, therefore, may have been made in good faith – but Western leaders, as well as the Ukrainian president, don’t believe it.
U.S. President Joe Biden argued on Thursday that Putin was simply seeking breathing room and an opportunity to regroup during the Christmas period, telling reporters that the Russian president was “ready to bomb hospitals and nurseries, and churches on the 25th and New Year’s.
“I think he is trying to find some oxygen,” the president also said.
It could also be the case that Putin expected Ukraine to reject the ceasefire, thereby positioning the Russians as the humanitarians and the Ukrainians as the warmongers.
Jack Buckby is 19FortyFive’s Breaking News Editor. He is a British author, counter-extremism researcher, and journalist based in New York. Reporting on the U.K., Europe, and the U.S., he works to analyze and understand left-wing and right-wing radicalization, and reports on Western governments’ approaches to the pressing issues of today. His books and research papers explore these themes and propose pragmatic solutions to our increasingly polarized society.
