"Guided by humanitarian considerations, today from 18:00 to 00:00 from Sunday to Monday, the Russian side declares an Easter truce," Putin said in a video that was published online by the Russian Ministry of Foreign Affairs.
"I order that all military actions be stopped for this period," Putin added. The leader was also joined by Chief of the General Staff Valery Gerasimov. However, Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky did not buy the gesture as sincere, and wrote in a post on X, hitting back at Putin.
"Today, our forces continued their activity on the territory of the Kursk region and are holding their positions. In the Belgorod region, our warriors have advanced and expanded our zone of control. As for yet another attempt by Putin to play with human lives—at this moment, air raid alerts are spreading across Ukraine. At 17:15, Russian attack drones were detected in our skies. Ukrainian air defense and aviation have already begun working to protect us. Shahed drones in our skies reveal Putin’s true attitude toward Easter and toward human life."
Russian forces, however, said that they were pushing Ukraine back from the country's footholds in the region of Kursk. Ukraine had launched a surprise attack in the area last year.
Trump, who has grown frustrated with Putin over Russia's unwillingness to agree to a lasting ceasefire as Ukraine has, said the US will "just take a pass" if Russia does not agree to a ceasefire.
"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," Trump said. "But hopefully we won't have to do that."
