Agency :
Russian President Vladimir Putin announced a surprise one-day ceasefire in Ukraine on Saturday for Easter, but Kyiv said Russian forces continued artillery fire and called instead for an extended true halt to hostilities.
Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskiy said Russia had rejected just such a proposal brokered by U.S. President Donald Trump last month and could not be trusted.
Putin’s unilateral move, to last for 30 hours, followed Washington’s announcement that it could abandon peace talks within days unless Moscow and Kyiv showed they were serious about negotiating.
Putin ordered fighting to stop as of 6 p.m. Moscow time (1500 GMT) on Saturday until midnight on Sunday night.
“Based on humanitarian considerations … the Russian side announces an Easter truce. I order a stop to all military activities for this period,” Putin told Valery Gerasimov, Chief of Russia’s General Staff, at a televised meeting.
“We assume that Ukraine will follow our example. At the same time, our troops should be prepared to repel possible violations of the truce and provocations by the enemy, any aggressive actions.”
Shortly after the announcement, around an hour before it was due to take effect, air raid sirens rang out in Kyiv. Another warning was put in place briefly in Kyiv and the region around the capital about four hours after the ceasefire deadline.
Zelenskiy dismissed the proposal as “yet another attempt by Putin to play with human lives”. As of 45 minutes before the truce was meant to start, Ukrainian planes were repelling Russian air strikes, Zelenskiy said in a post on X.
Russian service members carry traditional cakes to distribute to local residents ahead of Orthodox Easter celebrations, in the course of Russia-Ukraine conflict in Avdiivka (Avdeyevka), in the Donetsk region, a Russian-controlled area of Ukraine, Apr 19, 2025. REUTERS/Alexander Ermochenko
Russian service members carry traditional cakes to distribute to local residents ahead of Orthodox Easter celebrations, in the course of Russia-Ukraine conflict in Avdiivka (Avdeyevka), in the Donetsk region, a Russian-controlled area of Ukraine, Apr 19, 2025. REUTERS/Alexander Ermochenko
In a post on social media platform X, Zelenskiy quoted Ukraine’s top commander, Oleksandr Syrskyi, as saying that Russian assault operations “continue on several frontline sectors, and Russian artillery fire has not subsided.”
“Therefore, there is no trust in words coming from Moscow.”
Zelenskiy later expanded on Syrskyi’s report, saying that Putin’s ceasefire did not apply to Russia’s Kursk and Belgorod regions, border areas where Ukrainian forces have made incursions and where hostilities were still going on.
“Fighting continues, Russian strikes continue,” he wrote, without providing evidence.
Zelenskiy said that in some areas along the front, “Russian artillery still sounds, rather than any promise of silence from the Russian leader. Russian drones are being used. In some sectors it is quieter.”
