WASHINGTON, Jan 5 (Reuters) – U.S. President Joe Biden suggested that Vladimir Putin’s fight in Ukraine after 10 months of war and thousands of lives lost had prompted the Russian president to offer a 36-hour truce , saying, “I think he’s trying to find some oxygen.”
The Kremlin said Putin had ordered a ceasefire from midday on Friday following a call for a Christmas truce by Patriarch Kirill of Moscow, head of the Russian Orthodox Church.
Ukraine rejected Russia’s Orthodox Christmas offer of a ceasefire, saying there would be no truce until Moscow withdrew its invading forces from occupied lands.
Asked about the proposed truce, Biden told reporters at the White House: “I’m reluctant to respond to anything Putin says. I found it interesting that he was willing to bomb hospitals and daycare centers and churches … on the 25th and the new . Year. I mean, I think he’s trying to find some oxygen.”
Russia’s ambassador to Washington, Anatoly Antonov, accused the US administration of lacking any desire for a political settlement, adding that “even” the unilaterally declared ceasefire is being qualified of an attempt to find some oxygen.
“All this means that Washington is determined to fight with us ‘to the last Ukrainian,’ and the fate of the Ukrainian people does not concern the Americans at all,” Antonov said in statements on the Facebook page from the embassy that were framed as responses to the media. questions
Putin’s ceasefire would begin in time for the Russian Orthodox Church’s observance of Christmas on January 7. The main Ukrainian Orthodox Church has been recognized as independent by the Church hierarchy since 2019 and rejects any notion of loyalty to the Moscow patriarch. Many Ukrainian believers have changed their calendar to celebrate Christmas on December 25 as in the West.
It would be the first major truce in the more than 10-month war that has claimed tens of thousands of lives and devastated large areas of Ukraine.
Reporting by Andrea Shalal, Steve Holland and Elaine Monaghan; writing by Susan Heavey and Kanishka Singh; Editing by Howard Goller and Stephen Coates
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