cease-fire temporary unilaterally decreed by Russian President Vladimir Putin in Ukraine on the occasion of the Orthodox Christmas officially started at 6 am in Argentina, as announced, before the rejection of Kievwhich he assured was an excuse for Moscow to stop his advances.

The truth is that the truce in fact it’s a failure. Shelling continued Friday on both sides of the front in Bakhmut, the epicenter of fighting in eastern Ukraine, and other cities across the country.

Under the terms of this truce, Russian troops will lay down their arms for 36 hours along the entire front line.

However, AFP reporters they heard artillery shelling on both sides of the front in Bakhmut, a city with largely destroyed and deserted streets, after the theoretical start of the ceasefire, despite its intensity it was smaller than previous days.

Pavlo Diatchenko, a Bakhmut policeman, declared a truce it was a Russian “provocation”. Civilians “are being bombed day and night and almost every day we are killed,” he said.

The Russian military has ensured, however, respect their truce and accused Ukrainian troops of “continuing to shell Russian cities and positions”.

Putin announced a ceasefire after Russian Orthodox Church Patriarch Kirill and Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan They will call for an end to the fighting over Orthodox Christmas, which is celebrated on Saturday.

“Taking into account the call of His Holiness Patriarch Kirill, I have instructed the defense minister to order a ceasefire regime along the entire line of contact between the sides in Ukraine,” the Kremlin said in a statement.

If it’s satisfied, it will be the first major truce in Ukraine since the beginning of the Russian invasion on February 24th.

Previously, there have been brief lulls in the fighting, but only locally, such as during the evacuation of civilians from the Mariupol Azovstal factory (southeast) in April.

rejection of Kiev

However, Putin’s announcement was met with skepticism by the Ukrainian authorities, who called it an “act of propaganda”.

Ukrainian President Volodimir Zelenski considered him a “sorry to slow progress” of Kyiv troops in the Donbas, to the east, and bring “equipment, ammunition and bring men closer to our positions”.

Putin has asked Ukrainian troops to respect the truce to allow the Orthodox, the majority faith in both Ukraine and Russia,”attend Christmas Eve servicesas well as on the day of the Nativity of Christ”.

In a message released a few minutes after the time scheduled for the ceasefire to take effect, the deputy head of the Ukrainian presidential administration, Kirilo Timoshenko, reported a Russian bombing of Kherson (south), which caused casualties. He did not specify when the attack took place.

Separatist authorities in eastern Ukraine, quoted by Russian news agencies, reported the shelling of their Donetsk stronghold by the Ukrainian army 15 minutes before the ceasefire went into effect.

An adviser to the Ukrainian presidency, Mikhailo Podoliak, Thursday called Russian announcement ‘hypocrisy’ of a ceasefire and asked Moscow’s troops to leave the country.

“Russia must leave the occupied territories, only then will there be a ‘temporary truce’. Save your hypocrisy,” he wrote on Twitter.

The reaction of the United States

The President of the United States, Joe Biden, estimated it with this announcement Putin “searches for oxygen”.

“I was ready to bomb hospitals, day care centers and churches” on December 25 and New Year’s Day, Biden said during a speech at the White House.

This ceasefire”it will do nothing to promote the prospects for peace“British Foreign Secretary James Cleverly reacted.

“Russia must permanently withdraw its forcesgive up illegal control of Ukrainian territory and end the barbaric attacks on innocent civilians,” he wrote in a Twitter message.

This truce will bring “neither freedom nor security” to Ukraine, German diplomats agreed.

During a telephone conversation with Putin, Erdogan had proposed a “unilateral ceasefire” to support “calls for peace and negotiations between Moscow and Kiev”.

Russia is ready to enter into a “serious dialogue” with Ukraine on the condition that Ukraine complies with Russian demands and accepts “new territorial realities” resulting from its invasion of the country in February, Putin replied.

Moscow said in September the annexation of four regions occupied at least in part by its military in Ukraine, despite multiple Russian military setbacks on the ground, just as it did with Ukraine’s Crimea peninsula in March 2014.

Zelensky insists on the complete withdrawal of Russian forces of his country, including Crimea, before engaging in any dialogue with Moscow. If not, he promises to recover the occupied territories by force.

Source: AFP