Russia’s phoney Easter truce bodes ill for any peace settlement
Donald Trump has inexplicably chosen to pussyfoot around the one power on earth that most notoriously responds only to strength.
Peace breaks out; or perhaps not. Blink and you would have missed the historic Easter truce in the Ukraine war. This was Vladimir Putin’s initiative, not a temporary respite forced upon him by America. Washington would have preferred a 30-day truce: what it got was 30 hours. Even then, any notion that this was an event similar to the famous Christmas truce of 1914, with opposing soldiers playing football, can be dismissed.
For this was a fighting truce, a shooting truce. Ukrainian authorities claim the ceasefire was broken 2,000 times. Russia, predictably, has made similar complaints. While it is not easy to establish the truth, a rough assessment of what happened can be made and it is not reassuring. Ukraine concedes that, during the truce, Russian forces refrained from launching air strikes or missiles. It is also accepted that the fighting diminished on the front line, but did not cease.