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Russian President Vladimir Putin on Saturday declared a temporary Easter ceasefire in Ukraine, citing humanitarian considerations, The Associated Press reported, citing a statement from the Kremlin.
According to the report, the ceasefire is set to last from 6 p.m. Moscow time (1500 GMT) on Saturday to midnight (2100 GMT) following Easter Sunday, the Kremlin said.
“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,” Putin announced during a meeting with Chief of the General Staff Valery Gerasimov, the report said, citing a video released by the Kremlin’s Press Service.
The Russian president further said, “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.”
The ceasefire announcement coincided with claims from Russia’s Defense Ministry that its forces had expelled Ukrainian troops from one of their last remaining footholds in Russia’s Kursk region, an area where Ukrainian forces had launched a surprise incursion last year.
The ceasefire declaration comes just a day U.S. President Donald Trump said that negotiations between Ukraine and Russia are “coming to a head”, and added that neither side is “playing” him in his diplomatic efforts to bring an end to the three-year war.
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