Shijal ChudasamaJanuary 5, 2023Putin issues a 36-hour cease-fire order for Orthodox Christmas in the Ukraine
Vladimir Putin, the president of Russia, has instructed his defense minister to establish a 36-hour ceasefire on the frontlines in Ukraine starting on Friday.
Beginning at 12:00 Moscow time (09:00 GMT), the cease-fire will fall on the Russian Orthodox Christmas.
Mr. Putin requested that Ukraine do the same, but Kiev promptly rejected the demand.
Mykhailo Podolyak, a presidential advisor for Ukraine, said: "Keep hypocrisy to yourself."
Following an appeal from Patriarch Kirill, leader of the Russian Orthodox Church, on Thursday morning, Mr. Putin issued his directive.
Kirill pleaded with "all the parties concerned" to put an end to the fighting and declare a Christmas truce.
According to the Julian calendar, Christmas Day is observed by the Russian Orthodox Church on January 7.
The patriarch's appeal served as Mr. Putin's justification for ordering a truce.
According to a statement from the Kremlin, "Taking into consideration [Kirill's] appeal, the president now authorizes the Russian Federation's minister of defense to enforce a ceasefire regime along the whole line of contact in Ukraine" for the duration of the 36-hour period.
In response, Ukraine was instructed by Mr. Putin to allow for Christmas Eve celebrations on Friday and Christmas Day celebrations on Saturday for the "huge numbers of Orthodox believers [who] reside in areas where hostilities are taking place."
Soon after, Mr. Podolyak declared on Twitter that unless Russian forces left every place they had taken, there could be no "temporary truce."
There are other Eastern Orthodox churches, but the Russian Orthodox Church is by far the biggest.
In Ukraine, some individuals celebrate Christmas on December 25, while others do so on January 7. The nation observes public holidays on both days.
The Orthodox Church of Ukraine said this year that it will for the first time permit its congregations to observe Christmas on December 25 along with certain other denominations in western Ukraine.
In 2018, the congregation and the similarly called Ukrainian Orthodox Church (UOC) parted. Up until Russia's invasion, the UOC had close ties to Moscow's ecclesiastical establishment, and some of its most senior clerics have been charged with continuing this covert assistance.
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