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WORLD NEWS Friday 6 January 2023

Putin orders 36-hour holiday weekend cease-fire in Ukraine

By ANDREW MELDRUM changed his plans, his goals
Associated Press for Ukraine,” NATO Secre-
KYIV, Ukraine (AP) — Rus- tary General Jens Stolten-
sian President Vladimir Pu- berg said in Oslo, Norway.
tin on Thursday ordered his Individual NATO countries
armed forces to observe a are stepping up their mili-
unilateral 36-hour cease- tary support of Ukraine with
fire in Ukraine this weekend increasingly advanced
for the Orthodox Christ- weapons.
mas holiday, the first such In the latest pledge, the
sweeping truce move in French Defense Ministry
the nearly 11-month-old said it plans talks soon with
war. its Ukrainian counterpart on
Putin did not appear to delivering armored com-
make his cease-fire order bat vehicles. France’s presi-
conditional on a Ukrainian dency says it would be the
agreement to follow suit, first time this type of West-
and it wasn’t clear whether ern-made wheeled tank
hostilities would actually destroyer would be sent to
halt on the 1,100-kilometer Ukraine’s military.
(684-mile) front line or else- In the United States, Biden
where. Ukrainian officials said Bradley Fighting Ve-
have previously dismissed hicles, a medium armored
Russian peace moves as Local citizens walk near a Christmas tree decorated for Orthodox Christmas and the New Year combat vehicle that can
playing for time to regroup festivities in Mariupol, in Russian-controlled Donetsk region, eastern Ukraine, Thursday, Jan. 5, serve as a troop carrier,
their forces and prepare for 2023. could be sent to Ukraine.
additional attacks. Associated Press While more weapons arrive,
At various points during the he’s trying to find some oxy- history and fighting for jus- office. The Kremlin said the the battlefield situation ap-
war that started on Feb. gen,” he said. tice,” she said. Russian president “reaf- pears to have settled into
24, Russian authorities have Putin acted at the sugges- “We must not forget that firmed Russia’s openness a stalemate, increasingly
ordered limited and local tion of the head of the Rus- in this war, Putin feels like to a serious dialogue” with a war of attrition. As winter
truces to allow evacuations sian Orthodox Church, Pa- a ‘good guy,’ doing good Ukrainian authorities. sets in, troop and equip-
of civilians or other humani- triarch Kirill, who proposed not only for himself and the Erdogan also told Zelenskyy ment mobility is more lim-
tarian purposes. Thursday’s a truce from noon Friday ‘brotherly nations,’ but also later by phone that Turkey ited. In the latest fighting,
order was the first time Pu- through midnight Saturday for the world he’s freeing was ready to mediate a Kyrylo Tymoshenko, deputy
tin has directed his troops Moscow time (0900 GMT from the ‘hegemony’ of “lasting peace.” Erdogan head of the Ukrainian presi-
to observe a cease-fire Friday to 2100 GMT Satur- the United States,” Stano- has made such offers fre- dential office, said Thursday
throughout Ukraine. day; 4 a.m. EST Friday to 3 vaya, founder of the inde- quently, helped broker a at least five civilians were
“Based on the fact that a p.m. EST Saturday). The Or- pendent R.Politik think tank, deal allowing Ukraine to ex- killed and eight wounded
large number of citizens thodox Church, which uses wrote on Telegram. port millions of tons of grain, across the country by Rus-
professing Orthodoxy live in the ancient Julian calen- She also linked Putin’s move and has facilitated a Ukrai- sian shelling in the previous
the combat areas, we call dar, celebrates Christmas to Ukrainian forces’ recent nian-Russian prisoner swap. 24 hours.
on the Ukrainian side to de- on Jan. 7 later than the strike on Makiivka that killed Russia’s professed readi- An intense battle has left
clare a cease-fire and give Gregorian calendar al- at least 89 Russian service- ness for peace talks came 60% of the eastern city of
them the opportunity to at- though some Christians in men. “He really doesn’t with the usual precondi- Bakhmut in ruins, Donetsk
tend services on Christmas Ukraine also mark the holi- want to get something like tions: that “Kyiv authorities Gov. Pavlo Kyrylenko said
Eve, as well as on the Day day on that date. Podolyak that for Christmas,” the an- fulfill the well known and re- Thursday. Ukrainian de-
of the Nativity of Christ,” had earlier dismissed Kirill’s alyst said. peatedly stated demands fenders appear to be hold-
according to Putin’s or- call as “a cynical trap and On the rainy streets of Kyiv, and recognize new territo- ing the Russians back. Tak-
der, addressed to Defense an element of propagan- some questioned the Rus- rial realities,” the Kremlin ing the city in the Donbas
Minister Sergei Shoigu and da.” President Volodymyr sians’ sincerity in discussing said, referring to Moscow’s region, an expansive indus-
published on the Kremlin’s Zelenskyy had proposed a a truce. “Shall we believe insistence that Ukraine rec- trial area bordering Russia,
website. Russian troop withdrawal Russians?” wondered Svit- ognize Crimea as part of would not only give Putin
While not necessarily the fi- earlier, before Dec. 25, but lana Zhereva after Kirill’s Russia and acknowledge a major battlefield gain
nal official word back from Russia rejected it. proposal. “On the one other illegal territorial gains. after months of setbacks,
Kyiv, Ukrainian presidential Kirill has previously justified hand they have given their Previous attempts at peace but would rupture Ukraine’s
adviser Mykhailo Podolyak the war as part of Russia’s blessing to the war and to talks have failed over Rus- supply lines and open the
tweeted that Russian forces “metaphysical struggle” to kill, and on the other hand sia’s territorial demands, way for Moscow’s forces to
“must leave the occupied prevent a liberal ideologi- they want to present them- because Ukraine insists that press on toward key Ukrai-
territories only then will it cal encroachment from selves as saints who are Russia withdraw from occu- nian strongholds in Donetsk.
have a ‘temporary truce.’ the West. against blood-spilling. But pied areas. In what appeared to be a
Keep hypocrisy to yourself.” Independent political an- they should be judged by Elsewhere, the head of move to entice more men
U.S. President Joe Biden de- alyst Tatyana Stanovaya their actions.” NATO detected no change to join the fight, the first
clined to comment directly said Putin’s cease-fire order Putin issued the truce order in Moscow’s stance on convicts recruited for bat-
but said at the White House is intended to make him after Turkish President Re- Ukraine, insisting that the tle by the Wagner Group, a
on Thursday it was “interest- look reasonable and inter- cep Tayyip Erdogan urged Kremlin “wants a Europe Russian private military con-
ing” that Putin was ready ested in peace. him in a phone call Thurs- where they can control a tractor, received a prom-
to bomb hospitals, nurseries The move “fits well into Pu- day to implement a “unilat- neighboring country.” ised government pardon
and churches on Christmas tin’s logic, in which Russia is eral cease-fire,” according “We have no indications after serving six months on
and New Year’s. “I think acting on the right side of to the Turkish president’s that President Putin has the front line.q