Russian President Vladimir Putin has declared an Easter truce in Ukraine, the Kremlin press service said Saturday, over three years after Moscow launched a full-scale offensive of the neighboring country.
The unilateral break in fighting is scheduled to last from Saturday evening until Monday morning local time.
“During a meeting in the Kremlin, the commander-in-chief heard a report by Valery Gerasimov, chief of the general staff of the Russian armed forces, on the situation on the line of contact and said that the Russian side stops all hostilities from 1800 [1500 GMT] on April 19 to 0000 on April 21,” the Kremlin’s official Telegram channel said.
Kyiv has yet to comment on the move.
Putin: Troops should be ready for ‘truce violations’
Putin was quoted as saying that while Russia “assumed” that Ukraine would follow suit. He also warned Russian troops should be ready to repel possible “provocations by the enemy.”
According to the statement on Telegram, Putin said the truce would show how sincere Kyiv was in its willingness to “participate in the process of peace talks aimed at eliminating the root causes of the Ukrainian crisis.”
Last month, Ukraine endorsed a 30-day ceasefire deal proposed by the US, but Moscow rejected the plan.
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