A temporary ceasefire between Russia and Ukraine is set to begin on Saturday afternoon in observance of Orthodox Easter, lasting until midnight between Sunday and Monday, amid stalled U.S.-led diplomatic efforts to end the war.
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The Kremlin announced that the truce will start at 4:00 p.m. on Saturday and continue through the end of Sunday, lasting a total of 32 hours.
According to the Kremlin, Russian Defense Minister Andrei Belousov and Chief of the General Staff Valery Gerasimov were instructed to halt combat operations on all fronts during this period.
Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy said his country is prepared to respect the ceasefire during Orthodox Easter, noting that Kyiv had previously proposed a similar truce for the occasion.
The temporary ceasefire comes as U.S.-led negotiations to end the four-year conflict have stalled, partly due to the ongoing war in the Middle East.
The two sides had also agreed to a ceasefire during Orthodox Easter last year.
Authorities in Odesa, southern Ukraine, reported on Saturday that two people were killed and two others injured in Russian strikes just hours before the truce was set to take effect.
Local officials also announced that two people were killed and around 15 others injured on Friday night in separate attacks targeting the cities of Poltava in central Ukraine and Sumy in the northeast.
Ukraine’s air force reported that Russia launched 128 drones against Ukraine on Thursday night.
Slowdown in Russian Military Operations
Multiple rounds of U.S.-led talks have failed to bridge the gap between the warring sides, with Washington’s attention now shifting toward Iran.
Negotiations have reached a deadlock as Moscow demands territorial and political concessions that Zelenskyy has rejected, describing them as tantamount to surrender.
Kremlin spokesperson Dmitry Peskov denied that Russia had discussed the ceasefire in advance with Ukraine or the United States, stating that the truce is unrelated to negotiations to end the war.
The war has claimed hundreds of thousands of lives and displaced millions, making it the deadliest conflict in Europe since World War II. In recent years, frontlines have largely stagnated, with Russia making limited territorial gains at a high cost.
However, Kyiv has recently managed to repel an offensive in the southeast, while Russian advances have slowed since late 2025, according to the U.S.-based Institute for the Study of War.
In addition to Ukrainian counterattacks, analysts attribute the slowdown to restrictions on Russia’s use of SpaceX’s Starlink satellite network and Moscow’s efforts to limit the use of the Telegram messaging app.
Despite this, the situation remains unfavorable for Ukraine in the Donetsk region, particularly toward the cities of Kramatorsk and Sloviansk, according to the institute.
Russia currently controls slightly more than 19% of Ukraine’s territory, most of which was seized in the early weeks of the conflict.
AFP
