Biden: Putin is trying to "breathe a sigh of relief" by proposing a truce
ARK News… US President Joe Biden said that the difficulties faced by Russian President Vladimir Putin in Ukraine made him offer a 36-hour ceasefire because he was "trying to breathe a sigh of relief."
The Kremlin said Putin had ordered the cease-fire from noon on Friday, following a call by the Patriarch of Moscow, Kirill, head of the Russian Orthodox Church, for a Christmas truce.
Ukraine rejected Putin's offer, saying there would be no armistice until Russia withdraws its invading forces from occupied territories.
In response to a question about the proposed truce, Biden on Thursday told reporters at the White House: “I am reluctant to respond to anything Putin says. I find it remarkable. He is ready to bomb hospitals, kindergartens, and churches... On the 25th and on New Year's Day. I mean, I think he's trying to breathe a sigh of relief."
Anatoly Antonov, Russia's ambassador to Washington, accused the US administration of not wanting any political settlement, adding that "even" the unilateral ceasefire is described as an attempt to catch a breath.
"All this means that Washington is determined to fight us (until the last Ukrainian) and that the fate of the Ukrainian people does not concern the Americans at all," Antonov said in remarks published in Russian and English on the Russian embassy's Facebook page.
The ceasefire would be the first major truce in the more than 10-month-old war that has killed tens of thousands of people and devastated swathes of Ukraine.
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