CHRISTMAS TRUCE - LETS FREEZE UKRAINE CONFLICT AS QUICKLY AS WE CAN

18 DEC 2025

PEOPLE FOR NUCLEAR DISARMAMENT

HUMAN SURVIVAL PROJECT

PRECONDITIONLESS CHRISTMAS TRUCE MIGHT HELP A PEACE SETTLEMENT:

LETS FREEZE UKRAINE CONFLICT AS QUICKLY AS WE CAN

As negotiations between Russia, US, Europe and Ukraine sputter on, with some claiming Ukraine and Russia are close to a peace deal, and some claiming that a peace deal is nowhere in sight and that the two sides are way to far apart for one ever to be reached, a possible alternative exists that might cut through the tangled web of negotiations between parties who do not want to negotiate, or even to be in the same room with each other.

This is a pre-condition-less ceasefire.

Pre-condition – LESS because the parties are never going to agree on conditions, and once conditions are agreed on, will immediately violate them.

This could be done EITHER

--As a Christmas truce that is to be automatically extended unless replaced by something else

--Or as a 'forever ceasefire/truce' that will be in place, once more, until some other arrangement is agreed.

The ceasefire would, clearly, be along existing lines of control.

Christmas whether western or orthodox, is an ideal time for a ceasefire.

Negotiations between two parties who are actively engaged in hostilities are inherently difficult, and a simple cessation of hostilities with a withdrawal of troops of both sides away from lines of actual control – say, a 5 or 10Km buffer zone patrolled by forces from, Say, Bolivia, Botswana, and maybe Australia - would do much to facilitate negotiations on a longer term settlement between the parties.

It would do much to take demands for capitulation on the one hand and surrender of existing occupied territory on the other hand, off the table – and would diminish any blackmail power such demands had, again on either side, to be realised.

Ukraine is never going to agree to a Russian demand for capitulation. Russia is unlikely to agree to Ukrainian demands for relinquishment of Donetsk or Crimea even after military reverses. And for the moment neither side will wish to be in the same room as the other.

A ceasefire without preconditions would, even more importantly, diminish the likelihood, and diminish the blackmail-power, of threats of Armageddon should military developments not go the way one party likes.

The continuance of war on the other hand, involves:

--A body-count already in excess of 1.2million for Russia alone, with daily casualties in excess of 1000 per day, well into the region of WW-1 bodycounts.

--Continuing threats to initiate the apocalypse by Russia, should military developments not please them.

--An ongoing divide in the global body-politic that replicates the old 'cold war', with ongoing negative impacts both on global decision-making on just about everything.

--A continuing possibility of catastrophic escalation either into a Europe-wide and then a global conventional war, or, worse, into a civilisation-ending thermonuclear exchange.

The current position of the Doomsday Clock at 89 seconds to 'midnight' is owed in large part to the Ukraine war.

It is often said in argument AGAINST a precondition-less ceasefire/truce/armistice, that 'this will lead to a frozen conflict'.

A 'frozen conflict' is frankly the least of our problems. Much much better a frozen conflict than a raging hot one that can escalate to global catastrophe in hours and minutes if enough stupid decisions are made.

A 'frozen' conflict will 'bracket' and put into deep freeze all those issues that seem to be simply impossible for rational people (let alone the likes of Trump, Rubio, Hegseth, Lavrov, Medvedev and Soloviev) – to deal with.

Frozen conflict? Lets freeze this conflict as quickly as we can.

John Hallam

Nuclear Disarmament Campaigner

People for Nuclear Disarmament

Human Survival Project

Co-Convenor, Abolition 2000 Working Group on Nuclear Risk Reduction

Member, No First Use Global Steering Committee

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