What is a « truce » and why Putin abuses this term
Vladimir Putin has announced today that « from humanitarian reasons » announces 30 hours of truce from 6pm to the end of Easter. In fact, this is a unilateral announcement of termination of fire and there is much more with sending a message to Donald Trump than with a real desire to stop the bloodshed. It is probably no accident that the date was chosen, because it is key in Russian history and Crimea, and this was recalled today by the Foreign Ministry in Moscow.
« Carriage » is an agreement between battling countries and has a completely different format, while in this case Ukraine is not a party to the Kremlin declared.
Putin has announced « Easter Tarmament »
- President Volodimir Zelenski’s first reaction was in addition to a message on a completely different occasion: « And as far as Putin’s attempt to play with people’s lives, air alarm is already spreading in Ukraine. At 17:15, Russian shock drones have been detected in the sky. Easter and the life of people. «
- « Unfortunately, we have long faced the fact that his statements do not correspond to his actions. We want to see the Russian forces really end the fire in all directions. Also we urge all our partners and the whole international community to remain vigilant. wrote Ukrainian Foreign Minister Andri Sibiga on the social network X. « Russia can at any time agree with the proposal for a complete and unconditional termination of the fire for a period of 30 days, » he said.
- « The Russians are trying to introduce themselves as » peacekeepers « , but they have already refused an unconditional cessation of the fire on March 11 and now conducting an information operation by talking about » ceasefire « but continuing to shoot without stopping, » Andri Kovalenko wrote, head of the Deloformation Center. « All this is for the purpose of blaming Ukraine, » writes Kovalenko, whose center is a body to the National Security and Defense Council.
| On January 5, 2023, Putin announced a 36 -hour Christmas termination of the fire (ed. There was really no termination of fire and the attacks of the Russian army continued, it regrouped near Bahmut, and exactly the morning of January 6, a storm began on Soledar, which was occupied by the end of next week. |
But in a characteristic style in his statement on Saturday, Putin linked the decision to end the fire with the actions of the Trump administration:
| « Our decision on the Easter truce will show how sincere the readiness of the Kiev regime and its desire is, and in fact, its ability to observe the agreements and to participate in the process of peace talks aimed at eliminating the root cause of the Ukrainian crisis. BRICS countries, all supporters of the fair and peaceful settlement of the Ukrainian crisis. « |
A day earlier, Trump made it clear that he was losing patience. Secretary of State Marco Rubio said on Friday that the United States may abandon the RZOs for Ukrainian after a few days if there are no clear signs of progress. Judging by Putin’s statement, the « Easter truce » can be used by Moscow to convince the White House administration that it is the Ukrainian authorities that hinder peace.
There are also reports that Washington is ready to accept Putin territories to remain under Russian control, and hours ago, even that they can recognize Crimea as Russian to agree to stop the war.
It is Crimea that is connected to April 19th. On that date, in 1783, Empress Catherine II issued a manifesto « on the acceptance of the Crimean Peninsula, the island of Taman and the entire Kuban region under the rule of the Russian Empire. » The document refers to a « happy transformation from rebellion and riots to peace, silence and legal order, » recalled the Russian MFA today with a video from the Russian historical society, the chairman of Sergei Narishkin, the director of the foreign intelligence of Russia.
Following are examples from nearly 250 years ago how they put an « oath of faithfulness to Russia from the Crimean nobility and representatives of all layers of the Crimean population. » In the same words as those of the Empress, the events in Ukraine since 2014. are called « armed insurgency with direct support from the West. »
What is the difference between a truce and the cessation of fire?
Putin uses a term that has a clear definition of war more than a century ago. But it is also used in the media and in everyday speech, although there are at least four different categories of such a stop of active hostilities.
- According to Article 36 of the Hague Conventions of 1907. The armistice « terminates military operations by mutual agreement between the warring countries », with a specific intention to negotiate a more durable agreement. If there is no specific end to this braking, the fighting can be renewed at any time, assuming that they will notify the enemy before. Today, it’s obviously not about it.
- In Art. 32 of the same Convention refers to the « white flag of the armistice » as a generally accepted symbol for the immediate suspension of military action on the battlefield in order to take care of the dead and wounded, evacuation of civil population, exchange of prisoners of war, to surrender or start negotiations. Ukrainians are far from waving a white flag.
- The truce may be common (across the front) or locally (which happens far more frequently) and this is recorded in Article 37. Following four more members in the Convention related to the rules of response to violations.
In this sense, « truce » is something agreed much more formally and perceived as a potential step towards a peaceful process. In its more durable variants (permanent truce), it includes a mechanism for avoiding confrontation/escalation, control posts, sometimes mixed patrols and a third party that acts as an observance observer, registers violations and – if there are such powers and opportunities – investigates the offenders (OSCE was doing a similar mission in Donbas.
The conversations about Ukraine are approaching an important answer, but not from Moscow or Kyiv
Putin uses the term for something otherwise called « unilateral cessation of fire », it is rather informal, short as time and almost always local because of some peculiarity of the military situation.
| For contemporary examples in the former USSR for the termination of battles without the subsequent political settlement of the conflict by passing through a classical truce and a peace treaty with the treated Transnistria in Moldova, Nagorno-Carbach in Azerbaijan, Osseti and Abkhazia in Georgia. These have been frozen for decades of conflicts or those that at some point one of the countries decides to end a military operation. |
Finally, because of the political consequences for the countries involved in the termination of fire, such actions are often not called by the term, but rather « Code of Behavior », « Humanitarian Pauses », « Opening Humanitarian Corridors », « Protected or Peace Areas » or even more generally-« co-statements », « memory », « memory memory », « memory memory », « memory ».
