Russia’s ceasefire is due to start at 10 a.m. Friday
The ceasefire ordered by Russia for the Orthodox Christmas must begin this Friday in Ukraine at noon, Moscow time (10 a.m., Paris time), and run until Saturday evening, at midnight (10 p.m. in Paris ). The first major truce since the start of the invasion on February 24, 2022, this gesture is interpreted by kyiv and its allies as a desire to gain time on the part of Moscow.
Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky blasted the announcement, which he said was just a “apology in order to at least stop the advance of our troops in the Donbass and bring equipment, ammunition, and bring men closer to our positions”. “What will be the result? More deaths », he said. For the American president, Vladimir Putin seeks “to give oneself air”. This ceasefire “will do nothing to advance the prospects for peace”, reacted the British Foreign Secretary, James Cleverly. Such a truce will only bring “neither freedom nor security” in Ukraine, abounded the German diplomacy.
The Russian truce is being offered less than a week following a Ukrainian strike on New Year’s Eve left at least 89 people dead in Makiivka, eastern Ukraine. A particularly deadly bombardment which the Russian army had to admit was extremely rare, and which aroused criticism in Russia once morest the military command.