The Kremlin said on Tuesday that Ukraine and the West reacted “cynically” to a 36-hour ceasefire proposed by Russian President Vladimir Putin to celebrate the old-style Orthodox Christmas, Reuters and Agerpres reported.

“We faced a cynical reaction from Kyiv and a number of Western leaders,” Kremlin press secretary Dmytro Peskov told reporters at the daily briefing.

“I repeat: cynical and incomprehensible,” the press secretary of the head of the Russian state emphasized, the official Interfax news agency quotes on the other hand.

“If one of the Orthodox Christians in the area of ​​the special operation in Ukraine was able to pray for Christmas in the church, it means that the ceasefire initiated by Russia has already achieved its goal,” Peskov said, using the term that Russia uses for the invasion of Ukraine, began effective February 24, 2022.

Russia claimed that the truce was declared for humanitarian purposes so that the Orthodox could celebrate Christmas in the old style, but Ukraine says that Russian forces bombed dozens of positions and settlements along the front line on Saturday, when the truce was supposed to be in effect. .

The reaction of the West to the ceasefire proposed by Vladimir Putin

Just hours after the Kremlin’s proposed ceasefire last Thursday, US President Joe Biden said Vladimir Putin was trying to “give himself a break” with his announcement, which would mark the first ceasefire since the start of the Russian invasion.

In a speech at the White House, Joe Biden said that the Kremlin leader “was ready to bomb hospitals, maternity homes and churches (…) on December 25 and on New Year’s Eve (…) I think he’s trying – give yourself a break.”

In its analysis of the development of the conflict, published after the Kremlin’s statements last Thursday, the US Institute for the Study of War said that the ceasefire proposal was “cynical” and “hypocritical” aimed at discrediting the leadership in Kyiv, which was unable to accept such a suddenly announced measure.

And German diplomats said on Thursday that the “so-called” Russian ceasefire in Ukraine on the occasion of Orthodox Christmas will not bring “neither freedom nor security to the people who live in fear every day under the Russian occupation.”

“If Putin wanted peace, he would have brought his soldiers home and the war would have ended. But it seems he wants to continue the war after a short break,” Foreign Minister Annalena Burbock said in a message posted on Twitter.

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