A temporary ceasefire between Russia and Ukraine came into force on Saturday, timed to coincide with Orthodox Easter celebrations, as both sides signalled conditional willingness to observe the 32-hour pause in fighting. The truce, ordered by Russian President Vladimir Putin on Thursday, runs from 4:00pm local time (13:00 GMT) Saturday until midnight Sunday — more than a week after Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy first proposed the idea.
Zelenskyy confirmed Kyiv's commitment to the truce while making clear its limits. "Ukraine will adhere to the ceasefire and respond strictly in kind. The absence of Russian strikes in the air, on land, and at sea will mean no response from our side," he wrote on social media. The Ukrainian military added it was prepared to respond "immediately" to any violation.
The hours leading up to the ceasefire cast doubt over its prospects. Russia launched at least 160 drones at Ukraine before the truce began, killing four people in the country's east and south and wounding dozens more. The southern Odesa region was among the hardest hit, with two deaths reported and significant damage to civilian infrastructure. Separately, four people died in Ukrainian drone strikes on Russian-occupied areas of the Donetsk and Kherson regions, according to Russian-installed officials. The pattern echoed last year's Orthodox Easter ceasefire, during which both sides accused each other of hundreds of violations.
Despite the fraught atmosphere, the day brought one concrete diplomatic result: both sides exchanged 175 prisoners of war each, mediated with the help of the United Arab Emirates. Such exchanges have become among the few tangible outcomes of multiple rounds of US-brokered negotiations, which remain deadlocked over territory. Ukraine has proposed freezing the conflict along current front lines, but Russia has insisted on Kyiv ceding full control of the Donetsk region — a demand Ukraine has firmly rejected. Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov confirmed that Moscow had not consulted Washington in advance about the Easter truce, and gave no indication of renewed three-way talks.
Why this matters: The ceasefire, however fragile, is a rare moment of potential pause in a conflict now stretching beyond four years, with Russia controlling just over 19 percent of Ukrainian territory. Analysts at the Institute for the Study of War note that Russian territorial advances have been slowing since late 2025, suggesting a front line approaching stalemate. Whether the Easter truce holds — or collapses as it did last year — will serve as a telling indicator of whether any broader diplomatic opening remains possible.