The Russian president also called on the Ukrainian forces to respect this truce in order to give the possibility to the Orthodox, the majority faith in Ukraine as in Russia, “to attend services on Christmas Eve, as well as on the day of the Nativity of Christ. “.
This ceasefire, the first of magnitude since the start of the Russian offensive in Ukraine in February, comes after a request to this effect from the Patriarch of the Russian Orthodox Church Kirill, a close supporter of Vladimir Putin.
This call from Patriarch Kirill had been brushed aside by Ukrainian presidential adviser Mykhaïlo Podoliak, who lambasted on Twitter Thursday, before Mr. Putin’s announcement, a possible truce of “cynical trap” and “element of propaganda” .
Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan also urged Putin in a phone call on Thursday to implement a “unilateral ceasefire” in Ukraine.
Ukraine reacts
An adviser to the Ukrainian presidency, Mykhaïlo Podoliak, described Thursday as “hypocrisy” the announcement of a Russian ceasefire in Ukraine, accusing Moscow of wanting to “buy time”. “Russia must leave the occupied territories, only then will there be a ‘temporary truce’. Keep your hypocrisy,” he wrote on Twitter.
In a separate message to the press, Mr. Podoliak denounced the ceasefire ordered a few moments earlier by Russian President Vladimir Putin as a “pure gesture of propaganda”.
“Russia is trying by all means to at least temporarily reduce the intensity of the fighting and the strikes on its logistics centers in order to gain time,” Podoliak continued.
He accused Mr Putin of not having ‘the slightest desire to end the war’ and of trying to ‘convince the Europeans to put pressure on’ kyiv for peace negotiations, which Ukraine has since refused months.
“There is no need to respond to the deliberately manipulative initiatives of the Russian leadership,” he said.