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Ankara and the leader of the Russian Orthodox Church called separately on January 5 for a cessation of hostilities in Ukraine. However, President Vladimir Putin responded to his Turkish counterpart Recep Tayip Erdogan that kyiv must cede the territories annexed by Russia as a condition for eventual dialogue between the parties. Moscow has not ruled on the request of the religious leader of his country, who appeals for a ceasefire on Orthodox Christmas, celebrated this week by both countries.
New attempts to mediate for a dialogue and eventual cessation of hostilities in Ukraine, but Russia does not give in.
In a phone call on Thursday, January 5, Turkish President Recep Tayip Erdogan asked his Russian counterpart Vladimir Putin for a unilateral ceasefire to support peace efforts in the war that Moscow ordered more than 10 months ago.
However, the Kremlin leader responded that kyiv should first accept the “new territorial realities”, in reference to the Ukrainian regions that Moscow has awarded itself, as a condition to start eventual negotiations leading to a solution to the conflict.
These are the province of Crimea, in southern Ukraine, annexed by Moscow in 2014, as well as the regions awarded by Putin in September 2022, after the holding of disputed referendums that the West and kyiv claim were held under coercion to the population.
In the consultations considered “illegal”, the Russian government incorporated as its own the provinces of Donetsk and Lugansk, in the east of the invaded country, and Kherson and Zaporizhia, in the south.
But Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky has repeatedly signaled that his nation will not hand over the territories as he pushes forward in a counter-offensive vowing to retake all of its territories, including Crimea.
kyiv’s army has recaptured significant swaths of its country, including the strategic city of Izium, which until last September was the main stronghold of invading troops in the northeastern province of Kharkiv.
Despite the heavy setbacks suffered by the Russian military, Putin has not given up on his invasion aspirations. In the first months of the conflict, the Kremlin Army admitted that it has the mission of seizing eastern to southern Ukraine, crossing Transnistria.
A plan that aims to take control of the entire Donbass region, in eastern Ukraine, until it creates a land corridor to Crimea and from there it would seek another “open door” to Transnistria, the pro-Russian separatist region of Moldova, dependent on Moscow. .
Faced with the strong resistance of the Ukrainian Army, backed by weapons from the West, and the new mobilizations of Russian reservists who, since last October, have targeted critical civilian infrastructure that deprives civilians of electricity, water and heating, the two parties appear to be at war. of wear and tear and with no solution in sight.
However, NATO recently warned that it would be “dangerous” to underestimate Russia’s war ambitions.
religious leader Russian advocates a halt to hostilities on Orthodox Christmas
Erdogan’s calls for a pause in the fighting were joined by the head of the Russian Orthodox Church, Patriarch Kirill.
The religious leader asked Moscow and kyiv for a ceasefire for Orthodox Christmas, an important date in the two warring countries that is celebrated between January 6 and 7.
The move was dismissed by kyiv, calling it a “cynical trap”.
“I, Kirill, Patriarch of Moscow and All Russia, call on all parties involved in the internal conflict to cease fire and establish a Christmas truce from 12:00 on January 6 to 00:00. hours on January 7, so that the Orthodox can attend services on Christmas Eve and Christmas Day,” he said.
The Kremlin leader has not publicly commented on that request and in Ukraine, Mykhailo Podolyak, one of President Zelensky’s advisers, accused the Russian church of making “war propaganda”, inciting the “mass murder” of Ukrainians and back what Moscow calls a “special military operation” to “denazify” Ukrainian territory.
“The statement of the Russian Orthodox Church on the ‘Christmas Truce’ is a cynical trap and an element of propaganda,” Podolyak stressed.
For kyiv, the Russian patriarch’s intentions are hard to believe, as the Russian Orthodox Church has openly backed his country in the war and the Moscow-ordered invasion on February 24, 2022 has contributed to a growing dispute within Orthodox Christianity. Slavic, going back more than a thousand years, even to the very roots of Russia and Ukraine.
Putin initially justified the invasion by the expansion of NATO, led by the United States, in Eastern Europe. He also claims to be defending Russian-speakers in eastern Ukraine, charges denied by kyiv, which is demanding the complete withdrawal of the invading forces.
With Reuters and AP
