WASHINGTON: US President Joe Biden said that Russian leader Vladimir Putin’s order for ceasefire in Ukraine was simply an effort to find breathing room for his war effort.
“He was ready to bomb hospitals and nurseries and churches” on December 25 and on New Year’s Day, Biden said, adding: “I think he’s trying to find some oxygen.”
State Department spokesman Ned Price called Putin’s ceasefire “cynical,” saying, “We have little faith in the intentions behind this announcement.”
He voiced concern that Russia would use the break to “regroup, to rest and ultimately to re-attack” and said that Putin may seek to “fool the world” by making it seem that he wants peace.
“This does not appear to be a change in the tide of the war,” he said.
“If Russia were truly serious about peace, about ending this war, it would withdraw its forces from the sovereign territory of Ukraine.”
The United States also denounced the Wagner Group—a mercenary outfit close to Putin that is under US sanctions—for announcing it had coordinated the release of a first group of Russian inmates who accepted amnesty in return for fighting in Ukraine. Wagner boss Yevgeny Prigozhin appeared in a video speaking to a gathering of men—some injured and whose faces were blurred.
“We would see it as just a barbaric tactic,” Price said, predicting that many prisoners would die on the frontlines.
“Even if there are tens of thousands of forces who may fall under Wagner’s control—under the control of Mr. Prigozhin—these are not forces that will be in a position to change the tide of war. These are not forces that are trained,” Price said.
The brief ceasefire declared by Putin but dismissed by Ukraine as an empty gesture was due to have taken effect on Friday in what would be the first full pause since Moscow’s invasion in February 2022.
Putin’s order to stop fighting for 36 hours during the Orthodox Christmas came after Moscow suffered its worst reported loss of life of the war and as Ukraine’s allies pledged to send armoured vehicles and a second Patriot air defence battery to aid Kyiv.
A senior Ukraine official said shortly after the supposed start of Russia’s pause in fighting that Moscow’s forces had struck the southern city of Kherson in an attack that left several people dead or wounded.
“There were at least four explosions ... They talk about a ceasefire. This is who we are at war with,” said Kyrylo Tymoshenko, the deputy head of the presidential administration.
He did not say whether the strikes themselves had occurred before or after the ceasefire’s start time.
AFP journalists heard both outgoing and incoming shelling in the frontline city of Bakhmut in eastern Ukraine on Friday.
The artillery fire was lighter than it has been in recent days and the streets of the largely bombed-out city were mostly empty except for military vehicles.
Both countries celebrate Orthodox Christmas and the Russian leader’s order came following ceasefire calls from Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan and Russia’s spiritual leader Patriarch Kirill, a staunch Putin supporter.
The halt was to begin on Friday (0900 GMT) and last until the end of Saturday (2100 GMT), the Kremlin said.
Ukraine has dismissed it as a strategy by Russia to gain time to regroup its forces and bolster its defences following a series of battlefield reversals.
President Volodymyr Zelensky said the unilateral ceasefire “cannot and should not be taken seriously” while a close advisor said Russia “must leave the occupied territories” for there to be any real let up in hostilities.
British Foreign Secretary James Cleverly wrote on Twitter: “A 36 hour pause of Russian attacks will do nothing to advance the prospects for peace.”
Since the invasion began on February 24 last year, Russia has occupied parts of eastern and southern Ukraine, but Kyiv has reclaimed swathes of its territory and this week claimed a New Year’s strike that killed scores of Moscow’s troops.
The Kremlin said Thursday that during a telephone conversation with Erdogan, Putin had told the Turkish leader Moscow was ready for dialogue if Kyiv recognises “new territorial realities”.
He was referring to Russia’s claim to have annexed four regions of Ukraine, including Donetsk, Lugansk, Zaporizhzhia and Kherson regions—despite not fully controlling them.
Kirill, 76, made his ceasefire appeal “so that Orthodox people can attend services on Christmas Eve and on the day of the Nativity of Christ”, he said on the church’s official website Thursday.
The Kremlin’s decision to send troops into Ukraine resulted in many clerics who had continued to remain loyal to Kirill turning away from Moscow.
In May, the Moscow-backed branch of Ukraine’s Orthodox Church severed ties with Russia, citing his lack of condemnation of the fighting.
News of Putin’s ceasefire order came as Germany and the United States pledged to provide additional military aid for Kyiv, with Biden saying the promised equipment comes at a “critical point” in the war.
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