Russia declares 30-hour 'Easter truce' in Ukraine

Updated 9pm

Russian President Vladimir Putin on Saturday announced a surprise Easter truce in Ukraine, set to last until midnight on Sunday in what would be the most significant pause in the fighting throughout the three-year conflict.

But hours after the truce was meant to come into effect, air raid warnings were still ringing out in Ukraine's capital Kyiv. 

The short-term order for Russia's troops to halt all combat activity -- which Ukraine has not said if it will match -- comes after months of US President Donald Trump pushing both Moscow and Kyiv to agree a truce.

He has so far failed to extract any major concessions from the Kremlin.

"Today from 1800 (1500 GMT) to midnight Sunday (2100 GMT Sunday), the Russian side announces an Easter truce," Putin said in televised comments during a meeting with the Russian chief of the general staff Valery Gerasimov.

Air raid alerts blasted across Ukraine on Saturday afternoon, including in the capital Kyiv, but ended right as Putin's order apparently came into force.

Easter, a major holiday for Christians, is celebrated on Sunday.

"I order for this period to stop all military action," Putin said, calling the truce motivated by "humanitarian reasons".

"We are going on the basis that the Ukrainian side will follow our example, while our troops must be ready to resist possible breaches of the truce and provocations by the enemy, any aggressive actions," Putin said.

Ukraine's Volodymyr Zelensky said Ukraine would abide by the truce. 

"If Russia is now suddenly ready to truly engage in a format of full and unconditional silence, Ukraine will act accordingly -- mirroring Russia's actions," Zelensky said Saturday in a post on X.

He proposed "extending it beyond the Easter day of April 20".

But the Ukrainian leader also accused Russia of having already broken its promises.

"Russian assault operations continue on several frontline sectors, and Russian artillery fire has not subsided," he said.

Ukraine's Kherson governor reported several Russian drone attacks after Putin's order was supposed to have come into force at 6:00 pm. (1500 GMT).

Ukraine's air force issue air-raid warnings across several regions in eastern Ukraine on Saturday evening, also while the ceasefire was supposed to be in effect.

Ukraine's air force said on social media there was a "ballistic missile threat" and official air-raid maps indicated alerts issued for the Kharkiv, Donetsk, Zaporizhzhia and Dnipropetrovsk regions.

"Therefore, there is no trust in words coming from Moscow," Zelensky said.

"We know all too well how Moscow manipulates, and we are prepared for anything. Ukraine's Defense Forces will act rationally -- responding in kind. Every Russian strike will be met with an appropriate response," he added.

 'Killings will continue'

Putin "might do it to give some hope or to show his humanity. But either way, of course, we don't trust (Russia)," said Dmitry, a 40-year-old soldier.

"These 30 hours will lead to nothing, I don't see any result. The killings of our people and theirs will 100 per cent continue," he added.

Russia and Ukraine on Saturday also held a large prisoner-of-war exchange, with each side saying they had handed back more than 240 captured fighters.

Putin said that Gerasimov had told him Ukraine had "more than 100 times... breached an agreement on not striking energy infrastructure".

Russia on Friday abandoned a moratorium on striking Ukrainian energy targets after each side accused the other of breaking a supposed deal without any formal agreement put in place.

The latest truce proposal will show "how sincere is the Kyiv's regime's readiness, its desire and ability to observe agreements and participate in a process of peace talks", Putin said.

Zelensky said air alerts were going off due to ongoing drone attacks just before Putin's order was set to start.

"As for yet another attempt by Putin to play with human lives -- at this moment, air raid alerts are spreading across Ukraine," Zelensky wrote on X, some 15 minutes before the order came into force.

"Shahed (attack) drones in our skies reveal Putin's true attitude toward Easter and toward human life," the president added, without saying whether Ukraine would observe the proposed truce.

The air alert in Kyiv stopped right at 1500 GMT.

Previous attempts at holding ceasefires for Easter in April 2022 and Orthodox Christmas in January 2023 were not implemented after both sides failed to agree on them.

Ukraine last month agreed to Trump's proposal for a full and unconditional 30-day ceasefire, only for Putin to reject it.

In Kramatorsk, one soldier, Vladislav, 22, recalled a ceasefire agreement soon after the start of armed hostilities in 2014, the year Russia seized the Crimean peninsula from Ukraine. 

That truce collapsed days afterwards.

"Our neighbours are already so predictable, I don't even know how to explain it. I feel like it's going to start again after a while, and it's going to go on and on," he said of the conflict.

Prisoner swap

Ukraine and Russia said they had each returned 246 soldiers being held as prisoners of war in a swap.  

Zelensky said the total of returned POWs now stood at 4,552. 

Gerasimov also said Russian troops had retaken more than 99 percent of the territory seized by Ukraine in the Kursk region in an incursion launched in August.

"In the areas of the Kursk region where Ukraine armed force mounted an incursion, the main part of the territory... is now liberated. That's 1,260 square kilometres, 99.5 percent," Gerasimov told Putin.

Russia earlier Saturday said it had retaken the penultimate village still under Ukrainian control in its Kursk frontier region.

Kyiv had hoped to use its hold on the region as a bargaining chip in the talks.