President Vladimir Putin has announced an unexpected and brief unilateral Easter truce in Russia’s war on Ukraine while Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy insists that Russian “assault operations” and “artillery fire are ongoing”.
Zelenskyy initially called the announcement on Saturday “another attempt by Putin to play with human lives. … Air raid alerts are spreading across Ukraine,” and “Shahed drones in our skies reveal Putin’s true attitude toward Easter and toward human life.”
Russian President Vladimir Putin announced a surprise one-day ceasefire in Ukraine for Easter on Saturday, but Kyiv said Russian forces continued artillery fire and called instead for an extended true halt to hostilities.
Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy said Russia had rejected just such a proposal brokered by U.S. President Donald Trump last month and could not be trusted.
The Ukrainian leader said later on X that his country would abide by a truce “if Russia is now suddenly ready to truly engage in a format of full and unconditional silence” and suggested extending a ceasefire.
In his surprise move, Putin said in televised comments while speaking to the Russian military’s chief of the general staff, Valery Gerasimov: “Today from 18:00 [15:00 GMT] to midnight Sunday [21:00 GMT on Sunday], the Russian side announces an Easter truce.” He added that the truce is based on “humanitarian considerations”.
Putin said he assumed Ukraine would follow Russia’s example and said Kyiv’s actions during the ceasefire would show its readiness for a peaceful settlement.
But the Russian president also told Gerasimov to ready troops to repel any violations of the truce by Ukraine.
The Russian Ministry of Defence posted on Telegram: “The ceasefire regime is being introduced for humanitarian purposes and will be observed by the Russian Joint Group of Troops, provided that it is mutually observed by the Kyiv regime”.
Ukrainian Foreign Minister Andrii Sybiha countered that Putin’s word “cannot be trusted and we will look at actions, not words”.
Sybiha added that Ukraine had “agreed unconditionally to the U.S. proposal of a full interim ceasefire for 30 days” in March, which Russia rejected. “Putin has now made statements about his alleged readiness for a ceasefire. 30 hours instead of 30 days,” Sybiha continued on X.
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.
