Putin proclaims “Easter truce”, as Ukraine says, he “cannot be trusted”

Russian President Vladimir Putin says he has ordered his forces to “stop all hostilities in Ukraine when he announced an” Easter truce “by the end of Sunday.

He said that the 30-hour truce would last until 22:00 BST on Sunday (00:00 Moscow time), adding that Russian forces should be prepared to respond to “any possible violations”.

Ukrainian President Olodimir Zelensky accused Putin of trying to “play with human life” – but did not say whether Ukraine agreed to stop the fight.

Zelensky said that Russian drones were discovered in the sky of Ukraine shortly before the truce came into force that, he said, it revealed “Putin’s true attitude to Easter and to the life of man.”

Foreign Minister of Ukraine Andrei Sibikh said that Ukraine had already agreed with the US proposal for a 30-day ceasefire, writing on X: “Putin has now expressed statements about his alleged ceasefire. 30 hours instead of 30 days.”

“Unfortunately, we had a long story of his applications that did not match his actions. We know that his words cannot be trusted, and we will consider actions, not words,” he added.

Putin announced a temporary truce at a meeting with his head of the General Staff Valery Gerasimov.

“Based on humanitarian reasons … The Russian side announces an Easter truce. I order a stop for all military events during this period,” Putin Gerasimov said.

“We believe that Ukraine will follow our example. At the same time, our troops should be prepared to repel the possible violations of the truce and provocation by opponents, any aggressive actions.”

The Russian Ministry of Defense said its troops would follow the ceasefire, provided that Ukraine is “mutually respected”.

This is not the first time in January 2023. In January 2023, a pause was suddenly announced – the previous attempt to cease the fire in the framework of the Orthodox Christmas in January 2023 after both parties could not agree with the proposal.

On February 24, 2022, Russia launched a full -scale invasion of Ukraine. It is estimated that hundreds of thousands of people – the vast majority of soldiers – were killed or injured on all sides.

The US is talking directly to Russia as part of its efforts to end the war, but tried to make significant progress.

Last month, Moscow rejected the proposal for a complete and unconditional ceasefire, which was agreed by the US and Ukraine.

US President Donald Trump warned on Friday that Washington would “make a pass” for brokerage talks to stop the war in Ukraine if there was no rapid progress.

He performed after Secretary of State Mark Rubio said the US did not “continue these efforts for weeks and months” because he had “other priorities to focus on”.

“We need to determine very quickly – and I am talking about a few days – no matter what,” he added.

“If this does not happen, we are just going to move on.”