Russia’s President, Vladimir Putin has announced a unilateral Easter truce in the nation’s war on Ukraine.
Meanwhile, President Volodymyr Zelenskyy says shortly after that Ukrainian air defence units were fighting off an attack by Russian drones, adding that it was “another attempt by Putin to play with human lives”.
On Saturday, Zelenskyy said on X, “Air raid alerts are spreading across Ukraine” and “Shahed drones in our skies reveal Putin’s true attitude toward Easter and toward human life”.
Putin had said earlier in televised comments on Saturday while speaking to the Russian military’s chief of the general staff, Valery Gerasimov.
Putin said he assumed Ukraine would follow Russia’s example and said Kyiv’s actions during the ceasefire would show its readiness for a peaceful settlement.
But the Russian president also told Gerasimov to ready troops to repel any violations of the truce by Ukraine.
However, Ukrainian Foreign Minister Andrii Sybiha said on Saturday that Putin’s word “cannot be trusted and we will look at actions, not words”.
Previous attempts at holding ceasefires for Easter in April 2022 and Orthodox Christmas in January 2023 were not implemented after both sides failed to agree on them.
