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Russian President Vladimir Putin announced a short-term ceasefire with Ukraine to coincide with the Orthodox Easter holiday, the Kremlin said Thursday, responding to a truce proposal that Kyiv had submitted through Washington after multiple rounds of negotiations failed to produce a breakthrough.
The halt in hostilities will take effect at 16:00 Moscow time, or 13:00 GMT, on April 11 and run through the end of April 12, the Kremlin said in a statement, citing "the approaching Orthodox feast of Easter" as the basis for the declaration. Russia's General Staff has been directed to suspend combat operations "in all directions" for the duration, according to the statement, though the Kremlin added that its forces remained prepared to respond to any hostile action.
Moscow said it expected Kyiv to fall in line, stating it assumed "the Ukrainian side will follow the example of the Russian Federation."
Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy had earlier in the week confirmed that a holiday truce proposal had been passed to Russia via the United States. The move came as US-brokered negotiations, which have gone through several rounds without significant progress, appeared to stall further amid Washington's growing focus on the conflict in the Middle East.
The war has cost hundreds of thousands of lives and forced millions from their homes, making it the deadliest conflict on European soil since World War II.
Beyond the immediate ceasefire question, broader peace efforts remain deeply stuck. Moscow has pressed for territorial and political concessions that Zelenskyy has repeatedly rejected as tantamount to surrender, and there has been no sign of movement on those core issues. The gap between the two sides' stated positions has left diplomatic efforts with little room to maneuver.
The four-year conflict, which began with Russia's full-scale invasion in February 2022, has ground on through intermittent diplomatic overtures and battlefield attrition, with no formal negotiating framework yet in place.
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