Putin declares Easter truce, drawing skeptical Ukrainian response

BERLIN — President Vladimir Putin of Russia ordered his forces to “stop all military activity” against Ukraine from Saturday evening through Sunday, declaring an “Easter truce” that appeared aimed at showing an impatient Trump administration that Moscow was still open to peace talks.

“We will assume that the Ukrainian side will follow our example,” Putin said Saturday.

Putin claimed that Kyiv’s response would shed light on Ukraine’s “desire, and, indeed, its ability” to take part in negotiations to end the war.

The offer seemed designed to do two things: appeal to President Donald Trump and put President Volodymyr Zelenskyy of Ukraine into a bind. He could reject the truce offer and risk angering Trump. Or he could take it and risk letting Russia take advantage of a planned cessation in hostilities to gather its forces for a new push.

Zelenskyy tried to thread the needle. He said Ukraine would abide by a truce so long as Russia did. And if Russia kept fighting, so would Ukraine.

“If Russia is now suddenly ready to truly engage in a format of full and unconditional silence, Ukraine will act accordingly — mirroring Russia’s actions,” Zelenskyy said in a social media post.

Air raid sirens rang out in Kyiv, Ukraine’s capital, around 5 p.m. local time, shortly after Putin announced the ceasefire and an hour before it was due to start. An hour after the truce was set to begin, Andriy Kovalenko, a Ukrainian defense official, said that “the Russians continue to fire in all directions, as before.”

More than two hours later, Zelenskyy said that Russian artillery fire hadn’t subsided. Shortly later, about 10 p.m. local time, another air raid alert rang out in Kyiv.

In his initial response to the truce offer, Zelenskyy referred to the offer of a truce as Putin’s “next attempt to play with people’s lives.”

Putin’s move came a day after the Trump administration made its impatience plain with Russia’s unwillingness to agree to the 30-day ceasefire.

Secretary of State Marco Rubio said Friday that the United States could decide “in a matter of days” to “move on” from trying to end the war. Trump said later that “if for some reason one of the two parties makes it very difficult,” the United States could decide that “we’re just going to take a pass.”

This article originally appeared in The New York Times.

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