Russia's President Putin Declares Unilateral Easter Ceasefire in Ukraine

Addis Ababa, April 19, 2025 (ENA)— Russian President Vladimir Putin has declared a 30-hour unilateral ceasefire today for the conflict in Ukraine.

The president said he expects Ukraine to join the ceasefire set to begin at 6 pm Moscow time tonight and conclude at 12 midnight on Sunday, coinciding with Easter celebrations, according to the Kremlin.

"For humanitarian reasons, the Russian side is declaring an Easter (Sunday) ceasefire today … I order a halt to all military operations for this period," he said.

The president stressed his expectation that the opposing party would participate in this initiative, stating that the ceasefire’s success or failure would demonstrate Ukraine's readiness and capacity to seek a peaceful resolution to the conflict.

“We assume that the Ukrainian side will follow our example. At the same time, our troops must be ready to repel possible violations of the truce and provocations from the enemy, any of its aggressive actions,” Putin stated.

 

Russian troops must be prepared to repel possible violations of the ceasefire and provocations by the opponent, he stressed.

The previous 30-day moratorium on military strikes on energy infrastructure showed a clear absence of inclination by Kyiv towards finding solutions via peaceful negotiations, he said, adding that Ukrainian forces had breached it over 100 times.

U.S. President Donald 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 are clear signs of progress soon.

The full-scale war between Russia and Ukraine began on February 24, 2022, it was learned.

Russia has been repeatedly demanding that Ukraine must officially drop its ambitions to join NATO and withdraw its troops from the entirety of the territory of four regions claimed by Moscow.