Putin announces Orthodox Easter ceasefire with Ukraine

Russian President Vladimir Putin announced a ceasefire for Orthodox Easter, starting from tomorrow. Photo / Getty Images

Russian President Vladimir Putin has announced a ceasefire in the war with Ukraine for the Orthodox Easter holidays, the Kremlin says.

With talks on ending the four-year conflict derailed by the Middle East war, Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy said this week that he had made a holiday truce proposal through the United States.

“A ceasefire is declared from 4pm local time on April 11 until the end of the day on April 12, 2026,” the Kremlin said, “in connection with the approaching Orthodox feast of Easter.”

Russia’s armed forces “have been instructed to cease combat operations in all directions for this period”, though troops were ready to “counter any possible provocations by the enemy”.

“We assume that the Ukrainian side will follow the example of the Russian Federation.”

There has so far been no reaction from Ukrainian official sources.

The war has cost hundreds of thousands of lives and displaced millions, making it Europe’s deadliest conflict since World War II.

Slow advances

Over the past few years, fighting on the front has come to a near standstill. Russia has made small territorial gains at a high cost.

But Ukraine recently managed to push back in the southeast, and Russian advances have been slowing since late last year, according to the US-based Institute for the Study of War (ISW).

Apart from Ukrainian counter-attacks, analysts attributed the slowdown to Russia being banned from using SpaceX’s Starlink satellites and Moscow’s own efforts to block the Telegram messaging app.

The satellites and the messaging app were widely used by troops for communications, especially for co-ordinating drone attacks that have come to dominate the war.

The situation is, however, unfavourable for Ukraine in the Donetsk region around the cities of Kramatorsk and Sloviansk, according to the ISW.

Russia wants Ukraine to pull troops from both cities without a fight as part of any peace accord.

Ukraine has in recent days stepped up assaults on Russian energy targets, especially oil-exporting ports, after prices spiked on the back of the Middle East war.

Several rounds of US-led talks have failed to bring the warring sides closer to an agreement, and US attention is now focused on Iran.

The negotiations have become deadlocked, with Moscow demanding territorial and political concessions that Zelenskyy has ruled out as tantamount to capitulation.

Moscow occupies just over 19% of Ukraine, the majority of which was seized during the first weeks of the conflict.

- Agence France-Presse