{"id":1509798,"date":"2024-12-24T21:00:00","date_gmt":"2024-12-25T02:00:00","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/bugaluu.com\/news\/?p=1509798"},"modified":"2024-12-24T21:00:00","modified_gmt":"2024-12-25T02:00:00","slug":"wishing-for-a-christmas-truce-in-ukraine","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/bugaluu.com\/news\/wishing-for-a-christmas-truce-in-ukraine\/1509798\/","title":{"rendered":"Wishing For A Christmas Truce In Ukraine"},"content":{"rendered":"

Wishing For A Christmas Truce In Ukraine<\/span><\/p>\n

\n

Authored by\u00a0Ted Snider via AntiWar.com,<\/em><\/a><\/p>\n

On December 11, Hungary\u2019s Prime Minister Viktor Orban\u00a0said<\/a>\u00a0that, as one of the last things he would do at the end of his term as the European Union\u2019s rotating president, he proposed a Christmas truce between Ukraine and Russia. “At the end of the Hungarian EU presidency, we made new efforts for peace. We proposed a Christmas ceasefire and a large-scale prisoner exchange<\/strong>,” he said. Sadly, he said, Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky “clearly rejected and ruled out” the idea.<\/p>\n

There is a history of the Christmas truce, and there is a history of civilian and military leaders rejecting it.<\/p>\n

On Christmas morning of 1914, a truce spread across multiple regions along the hundreds of miles western front. The truce broke out spontaneously and was not officially sanctioned. Pope Benedict XV had proposed a Christmas truce, pleading “that the guns may fall silent at least upon the night the angels sang.” But officials on both sides rejected his plea<\/strong>.<\/p>\n

But individual soldiers did not, and an unofficial, spontaneous truce broke out in different ways in different places<\/strong>. In some, British soldiers could see lanterns on small Christmas trees along the German trench and could hear German soldiers singing \u201cStille Nacht, heilige Nacht.\u201d Amazed British soldiers applauded the carol singing and responded with their own chorus of \u201cThe First Noel.\u201d<\/p>\n

Via BBC<\/em><\/a><\/p>\n

In other places along the front, British soldiers heard German soldiers inviting them to cross the no man\u2019s land and \u201cCome over here.\u201d British soldiers answered, \u201cYou come half-way. I come half-way.\u201d Sometimes the call included the invitation to bring a bottle and meet half way.<\/p>\n

In yet another account, British soldiers decided to take advantage of the thick fog that blanketed the field that morning to repair their trenches. As the fog suddenly lifted, they saw German soldiers doing the same thing. The two sides were close enough to shout greetings back and forth. Some German soldiers said they wanted a truce for that day, and the British soldiers approached, meeting them in no man\u2019s land where the enemies shook hands and exchanged cigarettes<\/strong>. They spoke, and for one brief moment, the war came to a stop.<\/p>\n

There are remarkable reports in diaries of the effect the Christmas truce had. One British soldier recorded that \u201cThere was not an atom of hate on either side.\u201d<\/strong> Another wrote in his diary, \u201cHere we were laughing and chatting to men whom only a few hours before we were trying to kill!\u201d British soldiers report Germans telling them in accented English that \u201cthey rather dislike[d]\u2026 the whole war in fact. They weren\u2019t aggressive at all.\u201d There are accounts of soldiers helping enemy soldiers collect their dead. There are even accounts of a soccer game breaking out. The Germans won 3-2.<\/p>\n

Officials were not at all pleased by the peaceful actions of their armed forces. Military leaders feared that the camaraderie and conversation would allow the men to get to know each other and undermine their willingness to kill each other. Orders were given on both sides to cease all \u201cfraternization with the enemy.\u201d<\/strong> Officers were ordered to fire on enemy soldiers who approached across no man\u2019s land. Soldiers who violated the order face court martials.<\/p>\n

That would be the first and last Christmas truce in World War I. After that magical Christmas, High Command on both sides prevented it from ever happening again.<\/p>\n

In December 2022,\u00a0faith leaders\u2019 call<\/a>\u00a0for a Christmas truce in the Russia-Ukraine war \u201cin the spirit of the truce that occurred in 1914 during the First World War\u201d was drowned out by the continued sound of artillery<\/strong>.<\/p>\n

And, now three years into the war, Orban has repeated that call. Hungarian Foreign Minister P\u00e9ter Szijj\u00e1rt\u00f3\u00a0says<\/a>\u00a0that Zelensky \u201cforcefully but politely\u201d refused a call from Orban to discuss a Christmas truce<\/strong>. Despite that initial rejection, Hungary is still pushing for the truce. Orban\u00a0says<\/a>\u00a0that Moscow responded positively to the idea of a Christmas truce and prisoner exchange and that, though Kiev has so far\u00a0rejected the idea, hope still remains. Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov also\u00a0claims<\/a>\u00a0that \u201cPutin has supported\u201d the effort of Orban\u00a0and that<\/a>\u00a0\u201cRussian President Vladimir Putin backs Hungarian Prime Minister Viktor Orban\u2019s efforts to achieve a Christmas ceasefire in Ukraine.\u201d<\/p>\n

Asked about the Christmas truce proposal that \u201cOrban seems to floating,\u201d Mike Waltz, Trump\u2019s pick for national security advisor,\u00a0answered<\/a>\u00a0that \u201cif that is some type of ceasefire as a first step, again, we\u2019ll \u2013 we\u2019ll take a hard look at what that means.\u201d<\/strong><\/p>\n

Russia and Ukraine have agreed on nothing during this war. There has even been a cultural battle in Ukraine between Russian and Ukrainian linked Orthodox churches. But, perhaps, the two churches can agree that Jesus\u2019 message was not one of war.<\/p>\n

It is unlikely that the two sides will officially agree to a Christmas truce. It is, perhaps, even unlikely that small, spontaneous truces will pop up along the Donbas front. But, perhaps, in some small pocket of the front, a small number of Ukrainian and Russian soldiers will approach each other half way across the field that separates them and shake hands and exchange Christmas greetings and remind their leaders that the people who are suffering and dying are not just enemy soldiers but, more essentially, humans and brothers who just want to go home and stop this dreadful war.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n

Tyler Durden<\/a><\/span>
\nTue, 12\/24\/2024 – 16:00<\/span><\/p>\n

\u200bhttps:\/\/www.zerohedge.com\/geopolitical\/wishing-christmas-truce-ukraine<\/a>\u00a0<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Wishing For A Christmas Truce In Ukraine Authored by\u00a0Ted Snider via AntiWar.com, On December 11, Hungary\u2019s Prime Minister Viktor Orban\u00a0said\u00a0that, as one of the last…<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":0,"featured_media":1509799,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-1509798","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-news","wpcat-1-id"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/bugaluu.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1509798","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/bugaluu.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/bugaluu.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/bugaluu.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=1509798"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/bugaluu.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1509798\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/bugaluu.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/1509799"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/bugaluu.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=1509798"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/bugaluu.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=1509798"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/bugaluu.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=1509798"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}