Russian President Vladimir Putin instructed his forces to implement a temporary ceasefire in Ukraine later this week to coincide with the Russian and Ukrainian Orthodox celebration of Christmas.
“Taking into account the appeal of His Holiness Patriarch Kirill, I instruct the Minister of Defense of the Russian Federation to introduce a ceasefire regime along the entire line of contact between the parties in Ukraine from 12:00 on January 6 to 24:00 on January 7,” a statement from the Kremlin released on Thursday said.
It remains to be seen whether Russian forces will live up to any such short-term ceasefire considering Kremlin officials have repeatedly said one thing while giving contradictory orders to the troops. In recent weeks, Russia has continued its pursuit of Bakhmut, a city in the Donbas region in eastern Ukraine. The fighting has been"vicious," according to U.S. officials, and they expect the fighting there will continue for weeks, despite beliefs that the war would settle down amid the harsh winter conditions that are not suitable for the style of conflict playing out in the east.
Ukraine, for its part, has used U.S. and Western-provided weapons to get better at shooting down the Iranian"kamikaze" drones that have caused significant damage across the country. Ukrainians have also been able to recapture large swaths of territory that had been under Russian occupation, and oftentimes Ukrainians are left to assess the overwhelming destruction and apparent war crimes Russian forces committed.
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