Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskiy said Russia had rejected just such a proposal brokered by U.S. President Donald Trump last month and could not be trusted.
Putin ordered fighting to stop as of 6 p.m. Moscow time (1500 GMT) on Saturday until midnight on Sunday night.
“We assume that Ukraine will follow our example. At the same time, our troops should be prepared to repel possible violations of the truce and provocations by the enemy, any aggressive actions.”
Zelenskiy dismissed the proposal as “yet another attempt by Putin to play with human lives”. As of 45 minutes before the truce was meant to start, Ukrainian planes were repelling Russian air strikes, Zelenskiy said in a post on X.
“Therefore, there is no trust in words coming from Moscow.”
“Fighting continues, Russian strikes continue,“ he wrote, without providing evidence.
He recalled that Russia last month rejected the U.S.-proposed full 30-day ceasefire and said that if Moscow agreed to “truly engage in a format of full and unconditional silence, Ukraine will act accordingly — mirroring Russia’s actions”.
In Brussels, a European Union spokesperson expressed caution over the proclaimed ceasefire, saying: “Russia has a track record as an aggressor, so first we need to see any actual halt of the aggression and clear deeds for a lasting ceasefire.”
LITTLE FAITH
“This man is not capable of reaching any sort of a deal. He does not know how to do that,“ said Tetiana Solovei, 65. “Tonight, in Ukraine and especially in Kyiv, we expect missiles. There will be no ceasefire.”
The governor of southern Ukraine’s Kherson province said Russian air strikes began shortly before the truce was to start and continued after. He posted a picture of a damaged building.
Reuters could not independently verify the situation at the front.
Trump and Secretary of State Marco Rubio had said on Friday the United States would walk away from efforts to broker a Russia-Ukraine peace deal unless there were clear signs of progress soon.
Trump has vowed to bring a swift end to the war, while shifting U.S. policy from firmly supporting Kyiv towards accepting Moscow’s account of the conflict.
Putin announced his Easter truce a week after a Russian missile attack killed 35 people and wounded nearly 120 in the Ukrainian city of Sumy, including Christians heading to celebrate Palm Sunday.
Putin has proclaimed unilateral pauses in fighting in the past with little impact, including a 36-hour proposed truce for Orthodox Christmas in January 2023, which Kyiv rejected.
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