Putin's call for an Orthodox Christmas truce in Ukraine was met with skepticism

By Pavel Polityuk and Herbert Villarraga

KYIV/BAKHMUT, Ukraine (Reuters) – Russian President Vladimir Putin called for a 36-hour ceasefire in Ukraine on Thursday to mark Orthodox Christmas. Kiev rejected the move, saying there could be no ceasefire until Russia withdrew its troops from the occupied country.

The United States and Germany have jointly announced that they will supply Ukraine with armored fighting vehicles. This is a boost for Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky, who for months has been urging Western allies to equip his armed forces with armor and heavy weapons.

Fifty Bradley Fighting Vehicles would be included in a $2.8 billion U.S. package. Germany said it would send Marder infantry fighting vehicles after France said on Wednesday it would send AMX-10 RC armored fighting vehicles.

The Kremlin said Putin ordered Russian troops to cease fire across the front from midday Friday in response to a call for a Christmas ceasefire from Patriarch Kirill of Moscow, the head of the Russian Orthodox Church, a close Putin ally .

“Based on the fact that a large number of citizens professing Orthodoxy live in the combat zones, we call on the Ukrainian side to declare a ceasefire and allow them to attend church services on Christmas Eve and Christmas Day,” Putin said in his order.

Russia's Orthodox Church celebrates Christmas on January 7th. Ukraine's main Orthodox Church has rejected the authority of the Moscow Patriarch, and many Ukrainian believers have shifted their calendar to celebrate Christmas on December 25, like in the West.

A real ceasefire in Ukraine would be the first since May, when the sides stopped heavy fighting in the devastated port of Mariupol to allow Ukrainian forces there to surrender.

On Thursday evening, Zelensky accused Russia of wanting to use a ceasefire as a cover to stop Ukrainian advances in the strategic industrial zone and on the eastern front called Donbass.

“You now want to use Christmas, even if only briefly, as an excuse to stop the advance of our boys in Donbass and to bring equipment, ammunition and mobilized troops closer to our positions,” Zelensky said in his nightly video address, speaking rather pointedly in Russian than Ukrainian.

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“CYNICAL,” TELLS US

In Washington, US President Joe Biden, the State Department and the Pentagon greeted Putin's order with skepticism. Biden said he believes Putin is trying to “find some oxygen.”

Ukraine has achieved some success on the battlefield in recent months, even as Russia continued to launch a barrage of missile and drone attacks on Ukrainian energy plants that temporarily knocked out power for millions of people in the middle of winter. Russia has denied attacking civilians since its invasion began on February 24, but Kiev said the attacks also included attacks on civilian infrastructure on Christmas Day and New Year's Day.

“There is one word that best describes this, and it is 'cynical,'” US State Department spokesman Ned Price said in a news conference about Putin's ceasefire order.

“Our concern … is that the Russians would attempt to use any temporary lull in fighting to rest, re-equip, regroup and ultimately attack again,” Price said.

Putin's ceasefire also appeared to face challenges from the Russian side. Denis Pushilin, a Russian-appointed leader in the Ukrainian province of Donetsk, the scene of the heaviest fighting, wrote on Telegram: “There can be no talk of a ceasefire!”

He said Putin's order only concerned the cessation of offensive operations.

Earlier on Thursday, the Kremlin said Putin had told Turkish President Tayyip Erdogan that Moscow was ready for peace talks – but only on the condition that Ukraine “takes into account the new territorial realities,” a reference to Kiev's annexation of Ukrainian territory recognized by Moscow. Ukrainian presidential adviser Mikhailo Podolyak described this demand as “completely unacceptable.”

MEAT GRINDER

Ten months after Putin ordered what he called a “special military operation” to protect Russian security, Moscow and Kiev have entered the new year with hardened diplomatic positions.

Despite mounting casualties among his troops, Putin showed no willingness to discuss giving up his territorial conquests.

While some of the heaviest fighting of the war continues, the front line has been static since the last major Russian withdrawal in mid-November. The worst fighting took place near the eastern city of Bakhmut, which both sides have likened to a meat grinder.

Ukraine says Russia has lost thousands of soldiers despite narrowly gaining ground in months of futile attacks on Bakhmut. Russia says the city is key to its goal of seizing the rest of Donetsk province, one of four partially occupied regions the country says it has annexed.

Near the front, Reuters saw explosions of artillery fire and smoke filling the sky.

“We are holding on. The guys are trying to maintain the defense,” said Viktor, a 39-year-old Ukrainian soldier driving an armored vehicle from Soledar, a salt mining town on the northeastern outskirts of Bakhmut.

Most civilians were evacuated from Bakhmut. Those who remain survive under near-constant bombardment, with no heat or electricity. Parts of the city are wasteland, parts of the apartment blocks have been compressed into concrete piles.

(Reporting by Reuters bureaus; Writing by Peter Graff and Grant McCool; Editing by Andrew Heavens and Cynthia Osterman)