All you need to know about Ukraine rejecting Russia’s 36-hour truce offer

Here are the five things that you need to know about Russia’s offer and Ukraine’s rejection of the 36-hour ceasefire.

1. Kremlin orders ceasefire: Following the order of a ceasefire by Patriarch Kirill, head of the Orthodox Church in Russia, and a Christmas truce in Ukraine, Russia President Vladimir Putin instructed his defence minister to introduce a 36-hour ceasefire along the entire line of contact in Ukraine, The Guardian reported.

As a large number of residents in the Ukraine-Russia combat zone are Orthodox Christians, the statement by Kremlin, according to Reuters, urged the “Ukrainian side to declare a ceasefire to allow them attend services on Christmas Eve as well as on Christmas Day”.

2. Ukraine rejects ceasefire order: In a video address on Thursday night, Ukraine’s President Volodymyr Zelenskyy said, “They [Russians] 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.”

He said ending the war would mean ending Russia’s aggression “…and the war will end either when your soldiers leave or we throw them out,” the Ukraine president added.

3. Russia reacts to Ukraine’s refusal: Russian news agency TASS reported that Russian Security Council Deputy Chairman Dmitry Medvedev, following Ukraine’s rejection to agree to the ceasefire, equated the move to a refusal of “the hand of Christian mercy”. However, he said the situation will create “less problems and slyness” for his country’s armed forces. He further referred to them as “pigs” who “have no faith and no innate sense of gratitude.” “They understand only brute force,” Medvedev added.

Echoing Kremlin’s stand, Dmitry Polyansky, head of Russia’s permanent mission to the United Nations, took to Twitter to call Ukrainians “ruthless nationalist criminals who are ready to sacrifice their country and their people for the sake of Western geopolitical games and who have no respect for sacred things.”

One more reminder with whom we are fighting in #Ukraine – ruthless nationalist criminals who are ready to sacrifice their country and their people for the sake of Western geopolitical games and who have no respect for sacred things https://t.co/HDNmS7ox68

— Dmitry Polyanskiy (@Dpol_un) January 5, 2023

4. Countries respond in support of Kyiv: Soon after Russia’s ceasefire order, US President Joe Biden criticised President Putin for his attempt at “finding some oxygen”, while noting that Putin did not implement a ceasefire on December 25 when Ukrainians celebrate Christmas, The Guardian reported.

US state department spokesperson Ned Price called Putin’s move “cynical”, saying it “comes just days after Moscow perpetrated these New Year’s day attacks on Ukrainian civilians… we have little faith in the intentions behind this announcement.” “Our concern …is that the Russians would seek to use any temporary pause in fighting to rest, to refit, to regroup, and ultimately to re-attack,” Price said in the video.

Moreover, a joint statement from Biden and German Chancellor Olaf Scholz said that both countries would train Ukrainian soldiers to use Marder Infantry Fighting Vehicles, besides providing armor. “We have to do everything we can to help the Ukrainians resist Russian aggression,” Reuters reported Biden as saying.

5. War continues: The war continued on Friday in eastern Ukraine, specifically near the eastern city of Bakhmut, according to Reuters. What Putin refers to as a “special military operation” to protect Russia’s security has so far led to widescale displacements, thousands of civilian killings and the destruction of Ukrainian cities. According to Reuters, the Ukrainian prosecutor general’s office, sharing an update, said that at least 452 children have been killed and 877 children injured in the war.

The US believes that Putin’s ally and founder of Russia’s most powerful mercenary group is likely to assume “control of salt and gypsum from mines near Bakhmut,” according to Reuters.