The Russian president, Vladimir Putin, declared a high Easter fire in Ukraine on Saturday, after Washington said he could leave the peace conversations in a matter of days unless Moscow and kyiv show that they are ready to stop the war.
Putin ordered fighting to stop from Moscow time of 6 PM (1500 GMT) on Saturday until midnight on Sunday night.
“According to humanitarian considerations … the Russian side announces a Easter truce. I order a stop to all military activities for this period,” Putin told Valery Gerasimov, head of the general personnel of Russia, at a televised meeting on Saturday.
“We assume that Ukraine will follow our example. At the same time, our troops must be prepared to repel possible rapes of the truce and the provocations by the enemy, any aggressive action,” Putin added.
But shortly after the announcement, about an hour before the Air Raid sirens sounded in kyiv.
The president of Ukraine, Volodymyr Zelensky, dismissed the proposal as “another attempted Putin to play with human lives.” From 45 minutes before the truce was starting, Ukrainian planes repelled Russian air attacks, Zelensky said in an X position.
“Shahed drones in our skies reveal Putin’s true attitude towards Easter and to human life,” he said, referring to the Iranian -manufacturing attack drones used by Russia in the war to attack Ukrainian cities away from the front.
Russia’s Ministry of Defense said his troops had received instructions on the high fire and adhered to him, provided that Ukraine “respect mutually.”
The president of the United States, Donald Trump, and the Secretary of State, Marco Rubio, said on Friday that the United States would move away from the efforts to negotiate a Peace Agreement of Russia-Ukraine unless there are clear signs of progress soon.
Emoji Paloma
Kirill Dmitriev, a Putin envoy that traveled to Washington this month, published News from the Alto El Fuego in X, added: “A step closer to peace” and an emoji of a dove.
Trump has promised to put a quick end to war, while changing the United States’ policy to firmly support kyiv to accept Moscow’s story about the conflict.
Last month, Ukraine accepted a Trump proposal for a 30 -day truce, which Moscow rejected; The parties agreed only a limited pause of attacks against energy and sea objectives, which accuse the other of the break.
Putin’s announcement arrives a week after a Russian missile attack killed 35 people and wounded almost 120 in the city of Sumy Ukraine, including Christians who are heading to celebrate Ramos Sunday.
That attack, the deadliest against civilians of the year so far, stimulated kyiv and his European allies to press Washington to take a tougher line towards Moscow.
Putin has proclaimed unilateral pauses in the fight in the past with little impact on the battlefield, including a 36 -hour proposal for Orthodox Christmas in January 2023, which Kyiv rejected.
Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov said this week that progress had already been made in a peace settlement, but that contacts with Washington were difficult.
Russia’s invasion of Ukraine in February 2022 killed and wounded hundreds of thousands of soldiers on both sides, displaced millions of Ukrainian civilians and reduced the first -line Ukrainian cities to the rubble.
Putin has repeatedly said that he wants the end of the war, but he has not retired from his initial demands that kyiv yields every territory that says he has annexed and that they are prohibited permanently to unite a defense alliance with the West.
Kyiv says that these terms would be equivalent to surrender and leave it helpless of future Russian attacks.
Putin told Gerasimov on Saturday that Russia welcomed the efforts of the countries of the United States, China and Brics to find a peaceful agreement in the conflict.
Separately, Russia and Ukraine confirmed an exchange of prisoners of war on Saturday, mediated by the EAU. Each released 246 prisoners, while another 31 injured Ukrainians were transferred in exchange for 15 Russian soldiers, said the Russian Ministry of Defense.
