Putin declares unilateral Easter ceasefire, Ukraine says Russian attacks continue
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Russian President Vladimir Putin (right) with Chief of Russia’s General Staff Valery Gerasimov in Moscow on April 19.
PHOTO: AFP
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MOSCOW – Russian President Vladimir Putin announced a surprise one-day ceasefire in Ukraine for Easter on April 19, but Kyiv said Russian attacks continued and called on Moscow to instead accept a 30-day truce Kyiv had agreed to in March.
Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky said Russia had rejected just such a proposal brokered by US President Donald Trump in March and could not be trusted.
Mr Putin’s unilateral move, to last for 30 hours, followed Washington’s announcement that it could abandon peace talks
Mr Putin ordered fighting to stop as of 6pm Moscow time on April 19 (11pm Singapore time) until midnight on the night of April 21.
“Based on humanitarian considerations... the Russian side announces an Easter truce. I order a stop to all military activities for this period,” Mr Putin told Chief of Russia’s General Staff Valery Gerasimov 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 Ukraine’s capital about four hours after the ceasefire deadline.
Mr Zelensky, 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, Mr Zelensky said in a post on X.
“Shahed drones in our skies reveal Putin’s true attitude towards Easter and towards human life,” he said, referring to Iranian-made attack drones used widely by Russia in the war to attack Ukrainian cities far from the front.
In a post on social media platform X, Mr Zelensky quoted Ukraine’s top commander Oleksandr Syrskyi as saying that Russian assault operations “continue on several front-line sectors, and Russian artillery fire has not subsided”.
“Therefore, there is no trust in words coming from Moscow,” he said.
Mr Zelensky later expanded on Mr Syrskyi’s report, saying that the 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.
Mr Zelensky 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”.
He recalled that Russia in March rejected the US-proposed full 30-day ceasefire and said that if Moscow agreed to “truly engage in a format of full and unconditional silence, Ukraine will act accordingly – mirroring Russia’s actions”.
“If a complete ceasefire truly takes hold, Ukraine proposes extending it beyond the Easter day of April 20,” Mr Zelensky wrote.
In Brussels, a European Union spokesperson expressed caution over the proclaimed ceasefire, saying: “Russia has a track record as an aggressor, so first we need to see any actual halt of the aggression and clear deeds for a lasting ceasefire.”
A British foreign ministry spokesperson said: “Ukraine has committed to a full ceasefire. We urge Russia to do the same.”
Little faith
Kyiv residents expressed little faith in the ceasefire, saying similar past moves by Mr Putin had had little effect.
“This man is not capable of reaching any sort of a deal. He does not know how to do that,” said Ms Tetiana Solovei, 65. “Tonight, in Ukraine and especially in Kyiv, we expect missiles. There will be no ceasefire.”
Mr Andriy Kovalenko, head of Ukraine’s Centre for Countering Disinformation, said Russian forces continued to fire on Ukrainian positions after the truce was meant to have taken effect.
The governor of southern Ukraine’s Kherson province said Russian air strikes began shortly before the truce was to start and continued after. He posted a picture of a damaged building.
“Unfortunately, we are not seeing any sort of calm here. The shelling continues and our civilians are under fire,” he wrote on Telegram.
Ukrainian bloggers who cover the war said firing continued along the entire line of contact. But public broadcaster Suspilne quoted servicemen on the eastern front as saying the number of Russian attacks had declined.
The Russian Defence Ministry said its troops had been instructed about the ceasefire and would adhere to it, provided it was “mutually respected” by Ukraine.
US President Donald Trump and Secretary of State Marco Rubio had said on April 18 the US would walk away from efforts to broker a Russia-Ukraine peace deal unless there were clear signs of progress soon.
Dove emoji
Mr Kirill Dmitriev, an envoy for Mr Putin who travelled to Washington in April, posted news of the ceasefire on X, adding: “One step closer to peace” and an emoji of a dove.
Mr Trump has vowed to bring a swift end to the war, while shifting US policy from firmly supporting Kyiv towards accepting Moscow’s account of the conflict.
In March, after Ukraine accepted Mr Trump’s proposal for a 30-day truce but Moscow rejected it, they agreed only to limited pauses of attacks on energy targets and at sea. Both accuse each other of breaking the agreement.
Mr Putin’s announcement of an Easter truce comes a week after a Russian missile attack killed 35 people
That attack, the deadliest against civilians of the year 2025 so far, spurred Kyiv and its European allies to press Washington to take a tougher line towards Moscow.
Mr Putin has proclaimed unilateral pauses in fighting in the past with little impact on the battlefield, including a 36-hour proposed truce for Orthodox Christmas in January 2023 which Kyiv rejected. REUTERS
