PEOPLE FOR NUCLEAR DISARMAMENT

PEOPLE FOR NUCLEAR DISARMAMENT

HUMAN SURVIVAL PROJECT

APPEAL FOR A CHRISTMAS TRUCE IN UKRAINE

There should be a Christmas truce/ceasefire (Orthodox Christmas or western doesn't matter) in the war between Russia and Ukraine.

Last Western AND Orthodox Christmas, there was discussion of the possibility of a truce or ceasefire over one of the Christmases.

The precedent quoted was of course, the spontaneous ceasefire that took place over December 1914, between German and allied troops. That was a truce inspired by the message of Christmas (peace on earth, goodwill toward men), and came from the troops themselves who fraternised and played soccer together. The truce was actively destroyed by officers on both sides.

I am thinking of something a little more deliberate, and supported actively rather than sabotaged, by both the Russian and the Ukrainian Governments.

The continuance of the war:

--Involves colossal casualties, particularly but not solely on the Russian side (Russia is losing in excess of 1500 people per day. Such losses are not sustainable.) 

--Involves a real risk of escalation to tactical and then to strategic, nuclear war. An escalation to strategic nuclear war would end what we call hi-tech 'civilisation' taking us back to medieval times possibly for centuries, and kill most humans.

Zelensky in particular, has been actively suggesting conditions under which Ukraine might agree to cease fighting.

A truce, even a temporary one, would provide a window of opportunity in which tempers might cool, and in which both a longer term cessation of hostilities and a peace settlement, might be explored....and maybe even agreed on.

Even if a Christmas truce simply extended further into an indefinitely long cease fire, with no negotiated agreement, a simple cessation of hostilities by both sides would cease the bloodletting and would lower the risk of a civilisation – ending event sequence.

It does not need to be guaranteed that a peace settlement will drop out of the sky as soon as drones stop droning and as soon as missiles cease from raining down on communist-era housing blocks. But the creation of a space in which discussions might take place is of inestimable value.

Can we, please, have an Orthodox or Western Christmas truce – one that might become permanent?

John Hallam

People for Nuclear Disarmament/Human Survival Project

Abolition 2000 Nuclear Risk Reduction Working Group

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