Biden says Putin trying to find ‘oxygen’ with truce proposal
U.S. President Joe Biden speaks about U.S.-Mexico border security and enforcement, in the Roosevelt Room at the White House in Washington, U.S., January 5, 2023. REUTERS/Kevin Lamarque
WASHINGTON — United States President Joe Biden suggested Vladimir Putin’s struggle 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 after a call for a Christmas truce by Patriarch Kirill of Moscow, head of the Russian Orthodox Church.
Ukraine spurned the ceasefire offer over Russia’s Orthodox Christmas, saying there would be no truce until Moscow withdraws its invading forces from occupied land.
READ: Putin calls for Christmas truce in move rejected by Ukraine
Asked about the proposed truce, Biden told reporters at the White House: “I’m reluctant to respond to anything that Putin says. I found it interesting that he was willing to bomb hospitals and nurseries and churches … on the 25th and New Year’s. I mean, I think he’s trying to find some oxygen.”
Russia’s ambassador in Washington, Anatoly Antonov, accused the U.S. administration of lacking any desire for a political settlement, adding that “even” the unilaterally declared ceasefire was being labeled an attempt to find some oxygen.
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“All this means that Washington is set on fighting with us ‘to the last Ukrainian,’ and the fate of Ukraine’s people does not worry the Americans at all,” Antonov said in remarks on the embassy’s Facebook page that were framed as responses to media questions.
Putin’s ceasefire would begin in time for observation of Christmas by Russia’s Orthodox Church on January 7. Ukraine’s main Orthodox Church has been recognized as independent by the church hierarchy since 2019 and rejects any notion of allegiance to the Moscow patriarch. Many Ukrainian believers have shifted their calendar to celebrate Christmas on December 25 as in the West.
READ: Ukraine will create its own Christmas miracle, Zelenskiy says in defiant message
It would be the first major truce of the more than 10-month-old war that has claimed tens of thousands of lives and devastated large swaths of Ukraine.
