“Le palais des innocents”: Franck Schemer, best unknown author in the thriller category

AFP

Calls for a truce in Ukraine before the Orthodox Christmas holiday

Calls for a ceasefire in Ukraine were heard in Russia and abroad on Thursday, less than a week after a particularly deadly Ukrainian strike that left at least 89 Russian soldiers dead in the east . Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan has urged his counterpart Vladimir Putin to establish a “unilateral ceasefire” in Ukraine. “Calls for peace and negotiations between Moscow and Kyiv should be backed by a unilateral ceasefire,” Turkey’s head of state told Putin in a phone call, according to a statement. forwarded by the Turkish Presidency. Mr Putin replied that Russia was ready for a “serious dialogue” with Ukraine provided that the latter complied with Russian demands and accepted the “new territorial realities” born of the invasion of that country in February. Moscow claimed in September the annexation of four regions occupied at least partially by its army in Ukraine, despite a series of military setbacks on the ground, and on the pattern of that of the Ukrainian peninsula of Crimea in March 2014. President Volodymyr Zelensky, for his part, refuses to negotiate with Vladimir Putin, insisting on the objective of the return of all the occupied territories to the bosom of kyiv by military means. During his discussions with Mr. Erdogan, Mr. Putin also once again denounced the “destructive role of Western countries” in the conflict because of their arms deliveries, crucial for the Ukrainian war effort. . The Russian head of state accused the West of “feeding the kyiv regime with weapons and military equipment and providing it with operational and targeting information”. A member of NATO, Turkey has not associated itself with the sanctions against Russia and is trying to maintain a position of mediator between kyiv and Moscow. It thus played a key role in particular in the agreement allowing the export of Ukrainian cereals. – Calls from the Church – In Russia, it was the Patriarch of the Russian Orthodox Church Kirill, close to Vladimir Putin, who called for a truce on the occasion of the Orthodox Christmas celebration, celebrated on Saturday. “I, Kirill, Patriarch of Moscow and All Russia, address all parties involved in the fratricidal conflict to call on them to establish a ceasefire and seal a Christmas truce,” he said. he said in a message posted on the Church’s website. He called to lay down arms from 12:00 p.m. (10:00 GMT) on January 6 to 12:00 a.m. on January 7 (22:00 GMT on January 6). According to him, this truce should allow the Orthodox to be able to “attend the services on Christmas Eve and Christmas Day” in Ukraine. However, this message is likely to have little impact in Ukraine, where the influence of the Moscow Patriarchate has faded in recent years, this country having in particular endowed itself in 2018-2019 with a Church independent of religious supervision. of Russia. And the Church which had remained faithful to Moscow severed its ties with Russia in May, even if several of its dignitaries remain accused of pro-Russian positions. An adviser to the Ukrainian presidency, Mikhaïlo Podoliak, described on Twitter Patriarch Kirill’s call for a truce as a “cynical trap” and “element of propaganda”. – Russian prisoners released – These calls for a truce come after a Ukrainian strike on New Year’s Eve that left at least 89 people dead in Makiivka, eastern Ukraine. A particularly deadly bombardment that the Russian army had to recognize, an extremely rare fact, and which aroused criticism in Russia against the Russian military command. According to the Russian press, the building reduced to dust by a HIMARS strike, a weapon supplied by the United States, housed hundreds of mobilized, therefore non-professional soldiers. On the front in Ukraine, fighting continued on Thursday, particularly in Bakhmout, a city that Russian troops supported by mercenaries from the Wagner group have been trying to take since the summer, at the cost of great destruction and heavy apparent losses on both sides. . According to the daily report of the Ukrainian presidency, five people have been killed and eight injured in the past 24 hours. Among the dead is a sapper killed during a demining operation near Kharkiv (north-east). The boss of the Wagner group, the sulphurous businessman Evguéni Prigojine, meanwhile announced Thursday the first amnesties for Russian prisoners who agreed to fight in Ukraine and in particular in Bakhmout. On Tuesday, Mr. Prigojine assured that the Russian forces sometimes fought there “several weeks for each house”, transformed into “fortresses”. bur-pop/bds