"Putin Calls a 36-Hour Cease-Fire, but Ukraine and U.S. Are Skeptical"

From the New York Times, January 5,  7:00 p.m. ET:

The cease-fire would coincide with the Eastern Orthodox Christmas on Saturday, but Kremlin adversaries and some analysts call it a ploy for military and political advantage.

The Kremlin on Thursday announced a 36-hour cease-fire in Ukraine to mark the Eastern Orthodox Christmas, which would be the broadest truce by far since Russia invaded in February. But Ukraine’s leaders dismissed the idea as cynical posturing by a ruthless and untrustworthy enemy.

President Vladimir V. Putin of Russia ordered the cease-fire, from noon Friday until midnight Saturday, the Kremlin and the Defense Ministry said in separate statements. “Given that a large number of citizens practicing Orthodoxy resides in the areas of hostilities, we call on the Ukrainian side to announce a cease-fire and give them an opportunity to attend services on Christmas Eve and the day of Christ’s birth,” the Kremlin said.

President Volodymyr Zelensky of Ukraine responded with derision in his nightly video message, though he did not explicitly rule out the idea. After switching from speaking Ukrainian to Russian to address the Russian people directly, he spoke of those who “sent all of your people to be slaughtered” and “do not strive for peace.”

“Now they want to use Christmas as a cover” to pause Ukrainian advances “and bring equipment, ammunition and mobilized troops closer to our positions,” he said. “Everyone in the world knows how the Kremlin uses lulls in the war to continue the war with new force,” he added.

Russia has previously rejected — and, according to Ukraine, has repeatedly violated — limited, local cease-fires intended to allow humanitarian evacuations and aid deliveries in besieged places like Mariupol....

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The Times is mistaken about the facts regarding Mariupol but that's a book for another day.

At The Guardian:

10m ago 00.50 EST 

Zelenskiy dismisses Russian ceasefire, saying war will end ‘when your soldiers leave’

Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskiy rejected out of hand a Russian order for a truce over Russian Orthodox Christmas starting at noon on Friday and ending at midnight on Saturday. He said it was a trick to halt the progress of Ukraine’s forces in the eastern Donbas region and bring in more of Moscow’s forces.

“They now want to use Christmas as a cover, albeit briefly, to stop the advances of our boys in Donbas and bring equipment, ammunitions and mobilised troops closer to our positions,” Zelenskiy said in his Thursday night video address....

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