Russian President Vladimir Putin has ordered a cease-fire in Ukraine over the Easter period, the Kremlin announced Thursday evening, after Kiev had also proposed a pause in military hostilities during this weekend's holiday.
The Kremlin claims that the break will be valid starting on Saturday, April 11, from 16:00 (Moscow time coincides with Romania time), and “until the end of April 12”, according to the press release quoted by Euronews.com.
The announcement made Thursday evening by the Kremlin comes in the context in which Ukraine had proposed a suspension of attacks targeting the infrastructure in the energy sector. The proposal was sent to Russia via the US, President Volodymyr Zelenskiy said in a video message on Monday evening.
“If Russia is ready to stop attacks on our energy infrastructure, we will be ready to respond in kind,” Zelenskiy said. “This proposal was conveyed to the Russian side through the Americans,” he added.
Vladimir Putin had also announced a ceasefire last Easter for 30 hours, but the two sides accused each other of violating the truce.
Peace negotiations, postponed because of the war in Iran
The last tripartite peace talks between Russia, Ukraine and the US took place last month, before the US and Israel launched war on Iran on February 28. The conflict in the Middle East led to the postponement of the next round of talks.
On Wednesday, amid Trump's announced truce in the war against Iran, the Kremlin said Russia hoped the US would now have the time and opportunity to resume trilateral peace talks on Ukraine, according to Reuters.
“We hope that in the near future (the US) will have more time and more opportunities to meet in a trilateral format,” Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov said.
