Ukrainian officials urged Russia yesterday to extend a ceasefire it announced for Orthodox Easter this weekend and restart talks to end the war, but people on the streets of Kyiv and Moscow doubted it would lead to lasting peace.
Russian President Vladimir Putin on Thursday announced a 32-hour ceasefire starting this afternoon and running throughout Orthodox Easter until midnight tomorrow.
Ukrainian leader Volodymyr Zelenskiy, who has repeatedly proposed an Easter truce, quickly said Kyiv would abide by the measure, which Moscow had previously rejected as a ‘PR stunt’.
“People need an Easter without threats and a real move towards peace, and Russia has a chance not to return to attacks even after Easter,” Zelenskiy said, in comments posted on Telegram early yesterday.
Foreign Minister Andrii Sybiha said Ukraine was proposing that strikes should not resume after Easter, and he drew a parallel with the two-week ceasefire in the conflict between the US, Israel and Iran, announced on Tuesday.
“We believe that a ceasefire is the right strategy to advance diplomatic efforts – whether we are talking about the Middle East or Russian aggression against Ukraine,” he said.
The Kremlin yesterday said the Easter truce was a temporary humanitarian measure, and it wanted a permanent peace deal not a ceasefire, a demand that Ukraine has described as a delaying tactic.
Previous such truces have been beset with violations.
Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov said a visit by Putin’s special investment envoy to the US was economic and did not signal the resumption of US-mediated peace talks; US sanctions waivers on Russian oil expire on today.
Putin has said Russia would be willing to end hostilities if Ukraine hands over the remainder of the industrialised region of Donbas – roughly 6,000 square km – that it has been unable to conquer more than four years since its full-scale invasion.
Zelenskiy has said that would betray Ukraine’s defenders and that an aggressor should not dictate such terms.
Amid light snow and wintry weather in Kyiv yesterday morning, residents were sceptical that the truce would do anything to ease their situation.
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