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Russian President Vladimir Putin announced on Thursday a ceasefire for Orthodox Easter weekend after rejecting Ukraine\u2019s similar proposals for a truce. <\/p>\n
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“In connection with the approaching holiday of Orthodox Easter, a ceasefire is declared from 1600 on April 11 to the end of the day of April 12,” the Kremlin said in a statement.<\/p>\n
“We proceed on the basis that the Ukrainian side will follow the example of the Russian Federation.” <\/p>\n
For the past few weeks, Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy has been calling for a ceasefire for the upcoming Orthodox Easter weekend. <\/p>\n
Ukraine\u2019s leader proposed the Easter truce to Russia and also tried to convince Moscow, via mediator countries, to accept the ceasefire. <\/p>\n
Earlier this week, Zelenskyy said he had asked the United States to pass on a proposal for a holiday weekend truce to Moscow, as a first step. <\/p>\n
All these calls have been ignored by Moscow until Thursday evening, when the Kremlin announced its “unilateral” holiday truce. <\/p>\n
Zelenskyy responded to the Kremlin statement, saying, “Ukraine has repeatedly stated that we are ready for mirror steps. We proposed a ceasefire for the Easter holidays this year and will act accordingly.”<\/p>\n
“People need an Easter without threats and a real movement towards peace, and Russia has a chance not to return to strikes after Easter.”<\/p>\n
Can the ceasefire be extended?<\/p>\n
The diplomatic process aimed at ending Russia\u2019s war against Ukraine has stalled since the beginning of the Iran war, which Kyiv claims only “bolsters Russia\u2019s confidence”.<\/p>\n
According to media reports, Kremlin envoy Kirill Dmitriev travelled to the US to meet with the Trump administration officials on Thursday. <\/p>\n
The talks are reportedly focused on potential negotiations over putting an end to Russia\u2019s war against Ukraine, as well as broader US-Russia economic cooperation.<\/p>\n
The timing of his visit is not coincidental. The US deadline on whether Washington will extend sanctions relief on Russian oil expires on Saturday. <\/p>\n
When the US imposed sanctions in October 2025, Moscow agreed to return to the peace talks. <\/p>\n
In early March the US eased the restrictions and greenlit the sale of previously sanctioned Russian oil already on the water through 11 April.<\/p>\n
Washington hoped to minimise the economic fallout from the Iran war, but oil prices continued to rise, allowing Russia to make billions in extra profit according to estimates. <\/p>\n
Zelenskyy urged Russian oil sanctions to be reimposed after the Iran ceasefire. <\/p>\n
“If sanctions on Russian oil have been lifted because of the war in the Middle East, will the US sanctions be reimposed now that there is a ceasefire? I think that an answer to this question will expose the reason for lifting sanctions in the first place,” Ukraine\u2019s president said. <\/p>\n
“In my view, Russia played the Americans again \u2013 played the president of the United States.” <\/p>\n
“The Russians lied about the role their oil supplies played in keeping oil markets stable. If the US reimposes sanctions, that would be fair. But if it doesn\u2019t\u2026,” he stated.<\/p>\n
Zelenskyy called for increased pressure on Russia to restart the peace talks and finally agree to a trilateral leaders’ meeting, which Kyiv has been urging for months. <\/p>\n
“If Russia chooses the path of de-escalation, then I believe a trilateral meeting will take place.”<\/p>\n
Ukraine\u2019s president said April, May and June are “key months\u201d as he believes “the Americans will not give anyone more time for this dialogue.”<\/p>\n
“As summer begins, the United States will become even more focused on its internal processes \u2013 on the elections. And I think they have a kind of domestic political deadline \u2013 around August.”<\/p>\n
He admitted that the period before that will be “quite difficult politically and diplomatically.”<\/p>\n
“There may be pressure on Ukraine,” Zelenskyy said, as Kyiv hopes there will also be pressure on Russia too. <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Russian President Vladimir Putin announced on Thursday a ceasefire for Orthodox Easter weekend after rejecting Ukraine\u2019s similar proposals…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":5831,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[2],"tags":[913,5,994,233],"class_list":{"0":"post-5830","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-russia","8":"tag-easter","9":"tag-russia","10":"tag-russias-invasion-of-ukraine","11":"tag-war-in-ukraine"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/russia\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/5830","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/russia\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/russia\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/russia\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/russia\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=5830"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/russia\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/5830\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/russia\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/5831"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/russia\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=5830"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/russia\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=5830"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/russia\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=5830"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}