Putin announces Easter truce in Ukraine until Sunday night

Vladimir Putin has declared a 30-hour Easter truce at a meeting with the Chief of the General Staff of the Russian Armed Forces Valery Gerasimov, the Kremlin announced on Saturday afternoon.

The Russian military would end all hostilities from 6pm on Saturday until midnight on Monday, the Kremlin said. “Guided by humanitarian considerations, today from 1800 to 0000 hours from Sunday to Monday, the Russian side is declaring an Easter truce. I order all military operations to stop for this period,” Putin said.

“We assume that the Ukrainian side will follow our example. At the same time, our troops must be ready to repel potential violations of the truce and provocations by the enemy, or any other aggressive actions,” Putin continued, adding that the situation on the line of contact was “developing favourably” and that Russian troops were “moving forward”.

Reacting to the truce on Telegram, Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky said “As Putin once again plays with people’s lives, an air alert is currently going out across Ukraine. Russian attack drones were recorded overhead at 17:15 local time. Ukrainian air defences … are working to protect the country. The Shahed drones in our sky are Putin’s true attitude to Easter and human life,” while choosing not to directly reject Moscow’s proposal.

Ukraine Foreign Minister Andriy Sybiha said Ukraine’s position remained clear. “We agreed unconditionally to the US proposal of a full interim ceasefire for 30 days. … Putin has now made statements about his alleged readiness for a ceasefire. 30 hours instead of 30 days. Unfortunately, we have had a long history of his statements not matching his actions. We know his words cannot be trusted and we will look at actions, not words,” he wrote on Twitter.

The head of of the Centre for Countering Disinformation of the National Security and Defence Council of Ukraine, Andriy Kovalenko responded to the announcement by asking: “And why for 30 hours rather than an unconditional ceasefire, as we have been proposing since 11 March?”

Meanwhile, the director of Alexey Navalny’s Anti-Corruption Foundation, Ivan Zhdanov, wrote on Telegram that “1. Putin wants to show Trump that he is ready to make some moves. That is, Rubio’s ultimatum worked. 2. There is no longer any strength left for attacks. The troops are no longer advancing. Putin understands this. He needs the ceasefire.”

The move is likely Putin’s way of signalling his seriousness about the peace process to Washington, following comments by both US President Donald Trump and Secretary of State Marco Rubio in the past two days expressing frustration at the lack of progress on a ceasefire, and threatening to walk away from the process unless there were signs that a deal is achievable.