- Putin has ordered a 36-hour-long truce in Ukraine over the upcoming Orthodox Christmas holiday.
- The ceasefire will last from 12 p.m. local time on January 6 until 12 a.m. local time on January 7.
- His order, cited by the Kremlin, came after he spoke with the leader of the Russian Orthodox Church.
Russian President Vladimir Putin has ordered a short 36-hour ceasefire in Ukraine for the upcoming Orthodox Christmas holiday.
Putin instructed Russian Defense Minister Sergei Shoigu on Thursday to introduce the ceasefire, which will last from 12 p.m. local time on January 6 until 12 a.m. local time on January 7, according to a Kremlin notice.
The Kremlin's announcement of the upcoming ceasefire came after calls from the leader of the Russian Orthodox Church, Patriarch Kirill, to temporarily stop fighting so people could attend church services, state media TASS reported.
Kirill has been known to support Putin and the unprovoked full-scale invasion of Ukraine. He previously said that Russian soldiers who fight and die in Ukraine are committing a sacrifice and will be absolved of their sins.
While Putin's order to stop the fighting is unprecedented during the 10-month-long war he started, it remains to be seen if the truce is implemented and, if it is, whether or not it actually holds. Some in Kyiv have already expressed skepticism.
"ROC is not an authority for global Orthodoxy & acts as a war propagandist'. ROC called for the genocide of Ukrainians, incited mass murder & insists on even greater militarization of RF. Thus, ROC's statement about 'Christmas truce' is a cynical trap & an element of propaganda," Mykhailo Podolyak, a top advisor to Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy, said on Thursday before the ceasefire was formally announced by the Kremlin.
Meanwhile, Putin's call for the ceasefire comes after a flurry of domestic anger and frustration triggered by a recent Ukrainian US-provided High Mobility Artillery Rocket System (HIMARS) strike that killed scores of Russian troops in the occupied Donetsk region.
Moscow revealed in a rare disclosure of battlefield losses that 89 troops were killed, and blamed the strike on cellphone usage by its own forces. The claim, however, has led to pushback and remarks that the death toll is actually significantly higher.
This story is developing. Please check back for updates.