Russian President Vladimir Putin on Saturday announced an Easter truce in the conflict in Ukraine, starting this evening and lasting till midnight on Sunday.
The brief fighting halt was announced a day after US President Donald Trump and Secretary of State Marco Rubio stated that, while they were hoping for a peaceful resolution to the conflict, the US was now getting ready to move on from the talks in the face of a lack of significant progress.
“Today from 6pm (3pm GMT) to midnight Sunday (9pm GMT), the Russian side announces an Easter truce,” Putin said in televised comments, while speaking to Russian chief of staff Valery Gerasimov.
Easter, a major holiday for Christians, is celebrated on Sunday.
“I order for this period to stop all military action,” Putin said, calling the truce “based on humanitarian reasons”.
“We are going on the basis that the Ukrainian side will follow our example, while our troops must be ready to resist possible breaches of the truce and provocations by the enemy, any aggressive actions,” Putin said.
He said that Gerasimov had told him Ukraine “more than 100 times... breached an agreement on not striking energy infrastructure”.
Russia on Friday abandoned a moratorium on striking Ukrainian energy targets after each side accused the other of breaking a supposed deal without any formal agreement put in place.
The latest truce proposal will show “how sincere is the Kyiv’s regime’s readiness, its desire and ability to observe agreements and participate in a process of peace talks,” Putin said.
Zelensky wrote on X that the truce proposal came as air raid alerts were announced in Ukraine due to drone attacks.
“As for yet another attempt by Putin to play with human lives -- at this moment, air raid alerts are spreading across Ukraine,” Zelensky wrote on X, some 15 minutes before the order came into force.
“Shahed (attack) drones in our skies reveal Putin’s true attitude toward Easter and toward human life,” the president added, without saying whether Ukraine would observe the proposed truce.
The air alert in Kyiv stopped right at 3pm GMT.
Ukrainian Foreign Minister Andriy Sybiga said Saturday that Ukraine was waiting for “actions, not words” after the announced truce.
“Putin has now made statements about his alleged readiness for a ceasefire,” Sybiga wrote on social media, adding: “We know his words cannot be trusted and we will look at actions, not words.”
Previous attempts at holding ceasefires for Easter in April 2022 and Orthodox Christmas in January 2023 were not implemented after both sides failed to agree on them.
The defence ministry in Moscow announced Saturday that it had returned “246 Russian soldiers” being held as prisoners of war in a swap.
“In return 246 Ukrainian prisoners of war were handed over,” the ministry said in a statement on social media.
“Also as a good will gesture, 31 wounded prisoners of war were handed over in exchange for 15 wounded Russian prisoners of war needing urgent medical help,” the ministry added.
Gerasimov also said Russian troops had retaken over 99 percent of territory seized by Ukraine in the Kursk region in an incursion launched in August.
“In the areas of the Kursk region where Ukraine armed force mounted an incursion, the main part of the territory... is now liberated. That’s 1,260 square kilometres, 99.5 percent,” Gerasimov told Putin.
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