Putin declares Easter truce in Ukraine

The President of Russia, Vladimir Putin, has decided to declare a truce in the war with Ukraine on the occasion of the upcoming Orthodox Easter, announced the Kremlin this Thursday. “A ceasefire is declared from 16:00 on April 11 until the end of April 12, 2026,” states the official communiqué. The note adds that the Russian military command has been instructed to cease hostilities on all fronts during this period. However, it adds that the troops will be “prepared to counter any possible provocation or aggressive action by the enemy”. “We proceed from the assumption that Ukraine will follow the example of the Russian Federation,” the communiqué concludes. Hours earlier, the Kremlin stated that Putin had not yet made a decision on the Easter truce in a conflict that has been ongoing since February 2022. On March 31, the Kremlin rejected the proposal of the President of Ukraine, Volodymyr Zelenskyy, to jointly declare a truce during Orthodox Easter, and since then the Russian presidency had been reluctant to comment on this issue. “We repeat once again: Zelenskyy must assume his responsibility and make the corresponding decision so that we achieve peace, not a ceasefire,” said the Kremlin's press secretary, Dmitry Peskov, at the end of March. This is how the truce in Ukraine was agreed. He also stated that Zelenskyy never proposed a precise Easter truce, but spoke of a truce in general, to which the Russian leader is terminally opposed, as he considers that Kyiv would take advantage of it to rearm and mobilize more troops. In the past, Putin has already unilaterally declared truces of one day or more, for example, 30 hours last year on Orthodox Easter or in May 2025 on the occasion of the 80th anniversary of the victory of the Red Army over Nazi Germany. Meanwhile, Zelenskyy has always advocated for 30-day truces, a position also supported at the time by the US President, Donald Trump.