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Russian President Vladimir Putin has ordered his army to suspend combat operations in Ukraine during the Easter holiday this weekend.
Putin announced a biased “Easter ceasefire” 30-hour for “humanitarian reasons” on Saturday at a meeting with Valery Gerasimov, his senior military officer, according to footage published by the Kremlin. The truce it Was Decide to come into force at 6pm. Moscow’s time on Saturday and ended at midnight on Sunday.
The detention, which comes a day after US President Donald Trump threatened to complete the efforts of peace in Ukraine if it did not make rapid progress, was the second time Putin has declared a full suspension of hostilities since the commanding of Ukraine’s occupation three years ago.
Putin announced a similar ceasefire to mark Orthodox Christmas in January 2023, for which Ukraine claimed to be a ploy to stop its advances against Russian forces.
The minutes after Putin’s announcement, Air Raid Alerts were notified in several regions across Ukraine, as well as in the Kyiv capital, where air defenses opened fire on the entrance missiles and drones, according to President Volodymyr Zelenskyy and the Ukrainian Air Force.
“As for another Putin’s attempt to play with human life-at this moment, Raid Air’s alarms are spreading throughout Ukraine. At 17:15, Russian attack drones were discovered in our sky,” Zelenskyy said, after a report by Oleksandr Sysky, the commander-direction of Ukraine’s armed forces.
He added: “Shahed drones in our heaven reveal Putin’s true attitude towards Easter and human life.”
While Kyiv has agreed on Trump’s proposal for a 30-day ceasefire, Putin has refused to leave his maximum demands to end the war.
“Putin has now made statements about his alleged readiness for ceasefire. 30 hours instead of 30 days,” Foreign Minister Andriy Sybiha said on Saturday after Putin’s announcement. “Unfortunately, we have had a long history of his statements that do not match his actions. We know that his words cannot be trusted and we will look at the actions, not words.”
“We want to see that Russian forces actually cease fire in all directions,” he said, as he also calls on Ukraine and international community “to be alert.”
Both sides have accused each other of continuing violation of a moratorium on Energy Shocks mediated by the US in March. Russia also said it would not register in a similar maritime security agreement in the Black Sea unless a number of Western sanctions were repealed.
Putin said Russia expected Ukraine to “follow our example”, but told Gerasimov that he wanted his forces to be “prepared to repel any violation of ceasefire, provocations and aggressive actions by the enemy”.
He thanked Trump, Chinese leader Xi Jinping and Crucs Nations for their efforts to find a solution of the war in Ukraine and said the ceasefire would indicate whether Kyiv was serious about “participating in peace negotiations aimed at resolving the initial reasons for the Ukraine crisis”.
Putin’s declared conditions to end the war include Ukraine that submits four partially occupied regions in Russia and, in fact, ceasing to exist as an independent state.
Russia has also demanded that NATO return to almost all its placements east of the Berlin Wall as part of an agreement that would rewrite the Cold War security order.
Zelenskyy, meanwhile, said Ukrainian forces continued their struggle to maintain a shrinking land exchange within Russia’s Kursk region. Citing a report by Sysky, the president said Kyiv’s troops had also “advanced and expanded our control zone” in the neighboring Russian Belgorod region.
Shortly before the announcement of Putin’s ceasefire, Russia and Ukraine carried out one of the largest exchanges of prisoners of war since the beginning of Moscow’s comprehensive occupation in February 2022. Zelenskyy said 277 Ukraine troops had returned after a deal broke out by the United Arab Emirates.
He added that 4552 Ukrainian soldiers had been liberated from Russian captivity since the beginning of the occupation.
