Easter ceasefire or charade? Putin halts attacks, Zelenskyy alleges continued offensive

Russian President Vladimir Putin announced a ceasefire on the occasion of Easter, in fighting with Ukraine from 18:00 hours (Moscow time) till 00:00 hours on April 20. Putin also urged Kyiv to reciprocate.

Putin made the announcement at a meeting with Chief of the General Staff General Gerasimov, who reported that except two pockets right on the border with Ukraine, the whole territory of the Kursk region was liberated.

Parts of the region were occupied in August 2024 by Russian AFU in an incursion.

In response however, Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy accused the Russian army of continuing overnight attempts to inflict front-line losses on Ukraine, making a pretence of an Easter ceasefire.

"In general, as of Easter morning, we can say that the Russian army is trying to create a general impression of a ceasefire, but in some places it does not abandon individual attempts to advance and inflict losses on Ukraine," Zelenskyy said in a post on social media.

Putin, hours before heading to an Orthodox Easter service late on Saturday, announced the surprise one-day ceasefire, ordering his forces to "stop all military activity" along the front line in the three-year-old war.