US describes Putin’s ceasefire order “Cynical”: Price

United States Department Spokesperson Ned Price, on Thursday, called the order of ceasefire in Ukraine by Russian President Vladimir Putin “cynical” and said that if Moscow wanted to end the war then it would withdraw its forces from Ukraine’s territory. Notably, Putin ordered Russian defence minister Sergei Shoigu to introduce a 36-hour ceasefire along the entire line of contact between the warring sides in Ukraine from January 6-7, the Kremlin said on Thursday. While reacting to Putin’s order of ceasefire, Price said, “From our perspective, there is one word that best describes that, and it’s ‘cynical.’ It’s ‘cynical’ in large part because it comes just days after Moscow perpetrated these New Year’s Day attacks on Ukraine’s civilian infrastructure, and its civilian centres, following repeated days of attacks against similar targets. And I hesitate to even call them targets because, again, these are civilian centres in many cases.” “So as you can tell, we have little faith in the intentions behind this announcement. Our concern – it’s a concern that you heard from Secretary Blinken in his end-of-year press conference a couple of weeks ago – is that the Russians would seek to use any temporary pause in fighting to rest, to refit, to regroup, and ultimately to reattack,” he added.