According to the Kremlin, the ceasefire will last from 6pm on Saturday to midnight on Easter Sunday, both Moscow time.
“Guided by humanitarian considerations, today from 18.00 to 00.00 from Sunday to Monday, the Russian side declares an Easter truce.
“I order that all military actions be stopped for this period,” Mr Putin said at a meeting with chief of the general staff Valery Gerasimov, the Kremlin’s press service quoted him as saying.
A Russian BM-21 “Grad” self-propelled 122mm multiple rocket launcher fires towards Ukrainian positions in Ukraine (Russian defence ministry press service via AP)
“We assume that the Ukrainian side will follow our example. At the same time, our troops must be ready to repel possible violations of the truce and provocations from the enemy, any of its aggressive actions,” Putin said.
Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky called the ceasefire “another attempt by Putin to play with human lives.”
He wrote on X that “air raid alerts are spreading across Ukraine”, and “Shahed drones in our skies reveal Putin’s true attitude toward Easter and toward human life.”
Mr Putin’s announcement came after US President Donald Trump on Friday said negotiations between Ukraine and Russia are “coming to a head” and insisted that neither side is “playing” h...
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