MOSCOW, Apr 19 \u2013 Russian President Vladimir Putin has announced an \u201cEaster truce\u201d in Ukraine, however it\u2019s unclear if the proposal has been accepted by Kiev.<\/p>\n
Putin declared there will be a temporary end to hostilities from 16:00 BST Saturday day until 22:00 BST Sunday (00:00 Moscow time).<\/p>\n
The Russian leader says he assumes Ukraine will follow the truce but Russian troops are ready to repel any possible violations.<\/p>\n
Ukraine\u2019s Foreign Minister Andrii Sybiha says Kyiv will look at Putin\u2019s actions, not words, adding that Russia could agree with the US proposal for a 30-day ceasefire \u201cat any time\u201d.<\/p>\n
Putin\u2019s announcement comes after US President Donald Trump threatened to \u201cpass\u201d on Ukraine peace talks if no progress was made on a deal.<\/p>\n
The Russian leader made the comments as he met with Chief of Russia\u2019s General Staff Valery Gerasimov.<\/p>\n
Russia\u2019s Ministry of Defence said the truce had been \u201cguided by humanitarian considerations\u201d.<\/p>\n
After Putin\u2019s announcement, Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky condemned drones over Ukraine and said it reveals his \u201ctrue attitude toward Easter and human life\u201d.<\/p>\n
Since the announcement of an \u201cEaster truce\u201d, Russia\u2019s Ministry of Defence says they have done an exchange of 246 prisoners of war.<\/p>\n
The department adds 31 wounded Ukrainians were also exchanged for 15 wounded Russians as a \u201cgesture of goodwill\u201d.<\/p>\n
The Ministry says that all of the released Russians will receive \u201ctreatment and rehabilitation\u201d in medical institutions.<\/p>\n
In his most recent post on X, Zelensky calls the return of 277 Ukrainian servicemen \u201cone of the best pieces of news that can be\u201d.<\/p>\n
\u201cI thank everyone who made this return of our people possible,\u201d he says, adding he is \u201cespecially grateful to the United Arab Emirates for their mediation\u201d.<\/p>\n
According to the Ukrainian President, 4,552 people \u2013 including soldiers and civilians \u2013 have been brought back home from Russian imprisonment since the start of the war.<\/p>","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
MOSCOW, Apr 19 \u2013 Russian President Vladimir Putin has announced an \u201cEaster truce\u201d in Ukraine, however it\u2019s unclear if the proposal has been accepted by Kiev. Putin declared there will be a temporary end to hostilities from 16:00 BST Saturday day until 22:00 BST Sunday (00:00 Moscow time). The Russian leader says he assumes Ukraine […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":0,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-113936","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-uncategorized","entry"],"jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","jetpack-related-posts":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/chezaspin.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/113936","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/chezaspin.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/chezaspin.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/chezaspin.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=113936"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/chezaspin.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/113936\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/chezaspin.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=113936"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/chezaspin.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=113936"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/chezaspin.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=113936"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}