Russian President Vladimir Putin announced a temporary Easter ceasefire in Ukraine from Saturday, citing humanitarian reasons, while Russia and Ukraine exchanged hundreds of soldiers captured in the the greatest exchange From Moscow large -scale invasion started over three years ago.
According to the Kremlin, the ceasefire will last from 6 p.m. Moscow time, Saturday at midnight after Easter Sunday.
“We assume that the Ukrainian side will follow our example. At the same time, our troops must be ready to repel the possible violations of the truce and the provocations of the enemy, all its aggressive actions,” said Putin during a meeting with the chief of the general staff Gerasimov, in a video shared by the Kremlin press service.
Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy called the ceasefire “another attempt by Putin to play with human lives”. He wrote on X that “the alerts of air raids propagate through Ukraine” and “Shahed drones in our heavens reveal Putin’s true attitude towards Easter and human life”.
In response to the announcement of the ceasefire, the Ukrainian Minister of Foreign Affairs, Andrii Sybiha, said that kyiv had in March “was unconditional to the American proposal for a complete ceasefire for 30 days”, which Russia rejected.
“Putin has now made statements on her alleged preparation for a ceasefire. 30 hours instead of 30 days,” continued Sybiha, writing on X. “Unfortunately, we had a long history of his declarations that do not correspond to her actions.”
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The greatest exchange of prisoners of war so far
The two parties exchanged hundreds of prisoners of war on Saturday. The Russian Ministry of Defense said that 246 members of the Russian service had been returned from a territory controlled by kyiv and that “as a gesture of good will” 31 injured Ukrainian predictions were transferred in exchange for 15 injured Russian soldiers needing urgent medical care.
Zelenskyy said 277 Ukrainian “warriors” returned home from Russian captivity.
The two parties thanked the United Arab Emirates for their mediation.
The announcement of Putin’s ceasefire came after the American president Donald Trump Friday, negotiations between Ukraine and Russia “come to the head” and insisted that none of the parties “plays” in his push to put an end to the three -year war.
Trump spoke shortly after the Secretary of State, Marco Rubio, warned that the United States could “pass” Russia-Ukraine Peace Agreement If there is no progress in the coming days, after months of effort has failed to end Fights.
In January 2023, Putin had ordered her Ukraine forces to observe a unilateral, This 36 -hour cessor For Orthodox Christmas. Zelenskyy had rejected him as playing time to prepare additional attacks.
Russia says that its forces have taken up almost everything Kursk
The Russian Defense Ministry said on Saturday that his forces had pushed Ukrainian troops in the village of Olashhya, one of their last before Surprise incursion Last year.
Gerasimov declared on Saturday in a report to Putin, quoted by the Russian state media, which Russia had taken up almost the entire territory of the Ukrainian forces.
“The main part of the region of the region, where the invasion has taken place, has now been released. It is 1,260 square kilometers, 99.5%,” said Gerasimov.
Zelenskyy wrote on X that Ukrainian forces “continued their activity on the territory of the Kursk region and occupy their positions”.
The Associated Press was unable to immediately verify Russia’s complaint. Russian and North Korean soldiers almost deprived Kyiv of a key exchange by taking over the majority of the region.
According to the Russian state news agency CupRussia is still fighting to push Ukrainian forces out of the village of Gornal, about 11 kilometers south of Oleshanya.
“The Russian army has not yet pushed the Ukrainian armed forces out of the Gornal … in order to completely free the region of Kursk. Fierce fights are underway in the regulations,” the agency reported, citing Russian security agencies.
In other developments, the Ukrainian Air Force reported that Russia had shot 87 drones and explosive lures in the last wave of attacks overnight. He said 33 of them were intercepted and that 36 others were lost, having probably been stuck electronically.
The Russian attacks damaged the farms in the Odesa region and sparked fires in the Sumy region overnight, the Ukraine State of State Emergency Service announced on Saturday. Fires have been contained and no victim has been reported.
The Russian Defense Ministry said its air defense systems had shot two Ukrainian drones during the night after Saturday.
& Copy 2025 the Canadian press