President Vladimir V. Putin of Russia and his Ukrainian counterpart, Volodymyr Zelensky, have both called for a brief cease-fire in the war to coincide with the Orthodox Easter holiday. The measure could bring a rare pause in the fighting even as peace talks remain stalled. The cease-fire should begin on Saturday at 4 p.m. in Moscow, and last until the end of the following day, according to the Kremlin announcement on late Thursday night. The Kremlin said it assumed that “the Ukrainian side will follow the example of the Russian Federation.” Mr. Zelensky responded in a post on social media that Ukraine had already proposed an Easter cease-fire, and that it “will act accordingly.” But it was not immediately clear whether Ukraine had agreed to the exact timeline proposed by the Kremlin. Russia’s Defense Minister Andrei Belousov and Gen. Valery V. Gerasimov, the chief of Moscow’s war effort in Ukraine, “have been instructed to cease combat operations in all directions for this period,” the Kremlin statement said, noting that “Troops are to be prepared to counter any possible provocations by the enemy, as well as any aggressive actions.” Whether the cease-fire will hold amid the deep mistrust between Kyiv and Moscow remains to be seen. Each side accused the other of violating a similar truce over Easter last year. Mr. Zelensky accused Moscow of violating it almost 3,000 times. Russian attacks during the 30-hour period killed at least three people in Ukraine’s southern Kherson region, and injured three more. Russia, for its part, accused Ukraine of violating the cease-fire almost 5,000 times. Russia’s defense ministry claimed that the Russian military had “strictly observed the cease-fire and remained at previously occupied lines and positions.” In the current combat conditions, where soldiers face constant surveillance and targeting from drones in the sky around the clock, even a brief cease-fire could give Ukrainian troops a chance to rest and resupply. But even if both sides honor the truce, it is unlikely to serve as a steppingstone toward a longer pause in the fighting. Peace talks between Ukraine and Russia have stalled since the United States and Israel launched attacks on Iran. Mr. Zelensky, in comments to reporters on Wednesday, said the recent truce agreed between Washington and Tehran could open a window to resume talks. But he also acknowledged that this window could soon close, as the Trump administration turns its attention to domestic politics starting this summer, ahead of the midterm elections. Meanwhile, the Ukrainian Army has launched waves of strikes against Russian oil infrastructure since the beginning of the Iran war in an attempt to offset the financial windfall the Kremlin is set to receive amid soaring global oil prices and an easing of U.S. sanctions on Russian oil sales. Mr. Zelensky has said Kyiv would stop the strikes only if Moscow similarly halted its attacks on Ukrainian energy infrastructure. Kyiv has complained that Washington’s decision to temporarily lift sanctions on Russian oil already at sea by mid-March — a move designed to ease pressure on global oil markets — would help finance Russia’s war effort. The U.S. waiver is set to expire on Saturday, just a few hours before Mr. Putin’s proposed Easter truce, but Ukrainian officials have expressed concern that Washington would extend it given the continued strain on global oil markets.***
Valerie Hopkins covers the war in Ukraine and how the conflict is changing Russia, Ukraine, Europe and the United States. She is based in Moscow.
Constant Méheut reports on the war in Ukraine, including battlefield developments, attacks on civilian centers and how the war is affecting its people.
Ukrainian and European officials say President Vladimir V. Putin has become emboldened by a lack of Western pushback. The police inspected the damage to a house caused by debris from a shot-down Russian drone in the village of Wyryki-Wola, eastern Poland on Wednesday. Credit... Wojtek Radwanski/Agence France-Presse — Getty Images By Andrew E. Kramer Reporting from Kyiv, Ukraine The New York Times , Sept. 11, 2025 Updated 8:49 a.m. ET An American factory in western Ukraine. Two European diplomatic compounds and a key Ukrainian government building in Kyiv. And now Poland. Over a roughly three-week period, Russian drones and missiles have struck sites of increasing sensitivity for Ukraine and its Western allies, culminating in the volley of Russian drones that buzzed early Wednesday over Poland, a NATO country. For decades, American and European military planners feared something else: a bolt-from-the-blue assault, like an all-out nuclear strike, from the Soviet Union or ...
A bold Ukrainian operation in Kursk has humiliated Russian President Vladimir Putin and upended some of the logic of the ongoing war between Russia and Ukraine. Column by Ishaan Tharoor The Washington Post , August 14, 2024 at 12:00 a.m. EDT; see also Ukrainian soldiers pose for a picture as they repair a military vehicle near the Russian border on Sunday. (Viacheslav Ratynskyi/Reuters) Russia’s Kursk oblast is no stranger to war. In medieval times, the district was overrun by the Mongol horde, and was claimed and ceded down the centuries by Eurasian empires. During World War II, the environs of the city of Kursk became the site of the greatest tank battle in history, as Nazi Germany suffered a grievous strategic defeat at the hands of the bloodied yet unbowed Soviet Union . This past week, Kursk has been the site of the first major invasion of Russian territory since then. This time, it’s not the Nazi war machine rolling in — no matter what Kremlin propagandists insi...
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