Russian President Vladimir Putin on Thursday called on Ukraine for a 36-hour ceasefire over Orthodox Christmas, to which Kyiv responded by calling the request a hypocritical move by Moscow.
The Russian strongman ordered his defense minister, Sergey Shoygu, to order their military troops to hold their fire from noon on Friday until midnight on Saturday, as revealed by a statement from the Kremlin.
Putin Orders 36-Hour Ceasefire
However, an adviser to Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky, Mykhailo Podolyak, called the truce "hypocrisy," posting on Twitter that Ukraine does not attack foreign territory and does not kill civilians.
He continued to say that Russia must leave the territories that it has occupied, noting that only then will the two nations have a "temporary truce." Putin's order for a ceasefire comes after the leader of the Russian Orthodox Church, Patriarch Kirill of Moscow, requested that Ukraine and Russia observe a peaceful Christmas holiday.
Podolyak later called Kirill's proposal a "cynical trap and an element of propaganda." On Thursday, the Russian president said in a statement that he was instructing his defense minister to introduce a ceasefire given the appeal of the patriarch, as per Yahoo News.
Putin said that the ceasefire would allow the people "professing orthodoxy" to have an opportunity to attend services on Christmas Eve as well as on the Day of the Nativity of Christ. He also said that the order was based on the fact that a large number of worshippers lived in combat areas that were affected by the conflict.
On top of allowing local truces to evacuate civilians, the Russian president's order is the first time that he had directed his military personnel to follow a ceasefire since he ordered the invasion of Ukraine.
In a statement, Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov said last month that the prospect of a "Christmas ceasefire" was "not on the agenda." He said during interviews on Dec. 14 that there have been no such offers that have been received from anybody.
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Ukraine Calls Hypocrisy
According to CNN, Ukrainian officials also noted that Putin's order for a ceasefire was simply a false narrative and that Russia is planning on using that time to gather reserves, equipment, and ammunition.
Zelensky said during his nightly address on Thursday that Russia plans to use Orthodox Christmas as a cover to resupply and prevent Ukrainian troops from advancing in the eastern Donbas region.
The head of the Luhansk regional military administration, Serhiy Haidai, said that the Russian government only wanted to get a day or two of pause out of the truce in order to pull more reserves and bring more ammunition.
United States President Joe Biden also responded to Putin's order, saying that it was simply an effort to find breathing room for his war effort. The Democrat said that the Russian strongman was already prepared to bomb hospitals and nurseries and churches for his invasion.
Podolyak also criticized the Russian Orthodox Church as being a "war propagandist" that incited the mass murder of Ukrainians and the militarization of Russia by justifying the invasion as Moscow's "metaphysical struggle," Al Jazeera reported.
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