The Russian president, Vladimir Putin, declared a “Easter truce” in the war in Ukraine on Saturday, saying that the Russian team will cease military actions from 6 PM local on Saturday night until midnight on April 21.
Putin said that “the Ukrainian side will follow our example,” according to a statement on the Kremlin telegram channel. But it also says that Russia will respond to “rapes of the truce and the provocations” of Ukraine, according to the statement.
In a statement on Saturday, Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy did not say whether Ukraine would agree or not in the truce, but described the proposal “another attempt at Putin to play with human lives” and pointing out that Russian attacks were still launched in the hour before the high Russian fire was in force.
The proposed truce occurs when US officials, including Secretary of State Marco Rubio, continued having conversations in Paris this week to discuss the end of the war in Ukraine. Rubio said the conversations were “productive”, but said that the United States was willing to move from negotiations if they did not obtain results.
The Russian president, Vladimir Putin, makes gestures while talking with Alexander Sougfanov, Yelena Sougfanova and Sapir Cohen, who were released from Hamas’s captivity, during their meeting at the Kremlin, in Moscow, Russia, April 16, 2025.
Sofía Sandurskaya/Sputnik through AP
“We need to discover here, now in a matter of days, if this is feasible in the short term, because if not, then I think we are going to move on,” said Rubio in the asphalt when he left France early Friday.
Later, in the White House, President Donald Trump echoed Rubio’s statement, saying that the United States would make a determination “very briefly.”
Following Rubio’s public comments, Moscow said he was not in a hurry to reach an agreement.
These developments are also produced as a possible indicator of progress: a high 30 -day fire destined to stop the attacks of energy infrastructure objectives, has expired, without any word of Putin on whether Moscow will restart attacks in those objectives.
Both Russia and Ukraine have accused of repeatedly violating the agreement, which was negotiated by the Trump administration last month.
This is a development story. Consult the updates again.
Shannon Kingston of ABC News contributed to this report.
