Russian President, Vladimir Putin, has declared a unilateral Easter ceasefire in Ukraine, ordering all military operations to be suspended from 6 p.m. Moscow time on Saturday until the end of Sunday.
The directive, issued during a Kremlin meeting with top military officials, was presented as a humanitarian gesture to mark the Orthodox Easter holiday.
According to Reuters, Putin also indicated that Russian troops should remain on alert in case of any violations or provocations by Ukrainian forces, while expressing an expectation that Kyiv would observe a similar truce.
“Based on humanitarian considerations … the Russian side announces an Easter truce. I order a stop to all military activities for this period,” Putin told his military chief, Valery Gerasimov, at a meeting in the Kremlin.
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“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,” Putin added.
The temporary pause comes a day after United States President, Donald Trump, warned that the country will pull out of efforts to broker peace between Russia and Ukraine if the negotiations do not show signs of progress in the coming days.
Tribune Online reports that Trump while speaking in the Oval Office on Friday said the US would “take a pass” on further involvement in peace talks if either Moscow or Kyiv made it difficult to reach a deal.
“We’re talking about here people dying. We’re going to get it stopped, ideally. Now if, for some reason, one of the two parties makes it very difficult, we’re just going to say, ‘You’re foolish, you’re fools, you’re horrible people,’ and we’re going to just take a pass.”
Although Trump declined to give a specific timeline, he emphasised he wanted an agreement to be reached “quickly.”
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