Putin declares Easter ceasefire

(Patria) - Russian President Vladimir Putin has declared a unilateral Easter ceasefire in Ukraine, ordering his forces to cease all hostilities on Saturday and Sunday.

Putin ordered all hostilities to stop from Saturday at 6 PM Moscow time until the end of Sunday.

- Based on humanitarian grounds, the Russian side announces an Easter ceasefire. I order a halt to all military activities during this period. We assume that Ukraine will follow our example.

At the same time, our troops must be ready to repel possible enemy ceasefire violations and provocations, as well as any aggressive actions - Putin told his Chief of General Staff Valery Gerasimov at a meeting in the Kremlin.

According to the head of the Russian state, the Ukrainian response "will show the sincerity of the Kyiv regime, its willingness and ability to respect agreements, to participate in the process of peace negotiations aimed at eliminating the root causes of the Ukrainian crisis".

Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky condemned Putin's "attempt to play with human lives".

"Putin's new attempt to play with human lives," Zelensky wrote on Telegram, emphasizing that Russian drones detected in the Ukrainian sky show Moscow's true attitude towards Easter and people's lives.

However, he did not clearly formulate Kyiv's response to the ceasefire proposal.

The Russian Ministry of Defense announced that it had issued instructions for a ceasefire to all commanders in the area of the "special military operation," as the Kremlin calls the war in Ukraine.

Russian forces will adhere to the ceasefire if Ukraine also adheres to it, the ministry's statement said.

The ministry separately announced that Russia and Ukraine conducted a prisoner of war exchange on Saturday, 246 each, mediated by the United Arab Emirates.