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There's a thing about wars, they are much easier to start than they are to stop.

And Vladimir Putin's call for a 36-hour ceasefire in Ukraine - ostensibly to mark the Orthodox Christmas festivities - is instructive about the nature of the limitations of power.

As a self-styled Tsarist ruler, Mr Putin enjoys and expects absolutist authority, but like a modern day King Canute, his call to pause the tide of this bitter conflict - even for a short period - has been rejected and ignored.

Russia's temporary ceasefire has begun - Ukraine war latest

The Russian president's chosen war of aggression now has a life of its own and his ability to dictate terms and tempo is over.

From his viewpoint in the Kremlin, of course, it looked all so different nearly a year ago when his forces were mustering and about to invade.

Then, he assumed it would be a lightning advance - Kyiv would capitulate, and he would have his way, albeit with a slap on the wrist from the international community.

But the fact is that the only way Mr Putin can stop this war now is by a full and humiliating retreat from all of Ukraine's territory, including Crimea - something he cannot countenance, as it would certainly mean the end of him and his regime.

However, it's unlikely Moscow thought the offer of a ceasefire would ever be taken seriously by the Ukrainians.

Mr Putin would have assumed that Ukrainian President Volodymyr ZelenAG百家乐在线官网y's government in Kyiv - as they have done - would reject the idea out of hand as a cynical ploy, designed as a pause, so Russian troops could reinforce their increasingly precarious positions along the line of contact.

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The call for a ceasefire does, however, serve another purpose for his regime.

It will be packaged for a domestic audience and the Kremlin will be able to say that by offering it, Mr Putin is the true protector of Orthodox and Slavic tradition.

So, with his army battered and only bad news from the front, the increasingly diminished and isolated Russian leader, must take small wins whenever and wherever he can get them.

In the last few months with a war he started going terribly wrong and with only reverses on the battlefield to report - in Russia anyway - Mr Putin can claim to have taken the moral high ground.