Russia may try to use Orthodox Easter on April 16 to delay Ukrainian counteroffensive by calling for ceasefire out of respect for religion, warns Institute for the Study of War(ISW).
The US think tank said the Kremlin had selectively called for ceasefires in the past and that such an Easter truce would disproportionately benefit Russian forces.
- “Russia continues to use religion as a weapon to discredit Ukraine in the international arena and uses information operations on religion to achieve military goals, despite serious violations of religious freedom in occupied Ukraine.
- “Russia may use the Orthodox Easter holiday on April 16 to delay Ukrainian counteroffensives by calling for a ceasefire out of respect for the Orthodox religion, despite Russia showing no such respect for the religion in areas occupied by its forces. Russia’s religious persecution is also likely part of an ongoing campaign of cultural genocide and ethnic cleansing aimed at eradicating the idea of an independent Ukrainian nation or the Ukrainian Orthodox Church.
- The Russian occupation authorities are probably conducting a campaign of systematic religious persecution in occupied Ukraine.
- Since Russia’s full-scale invasion of Ukraine in February 2022, at least 76 acts of religious persecution have been committed in Ukraine by the Russian military or Russian occupation authorities.
- Russian authorities have closed, nationalized, or forcibly transferred at least 26 places of worship to the Kremlin-controlled Russian Orthodox Church of the Moscow Patriarchate, killed or detained at least 29 clergymen or religious leaders, and looted, desecrated, or destroyed 13 places of worship in occupied Ukraine.
- These cases of religious repression are probably not isolated incidents, but rather part of a targeted campaign to systematically eradicate “undesirable” religious organizations from Ukraine and promote the Moscow Patriarchate.”
Russia says it is not planning a truce
The Kremlin has said that they do not plan to cease fire on Easter in Ukraine, Russian state media reports, The Guardian reports.
Russian news agency TASS quotes Kremlin press secretary Dmytro Peskov as saying that the idea of an Easter truce “was not proposed by anyone, it was not presented.”
“There have been no initiatives in this regard yet, but our Holy Week has just begun. There have been no such initiatives yet,” said Peskov.
Source: Hot News
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