Vladimir Putin announces temporary 32-hour ceasefire in Ukraine

Oliver Partridge
Thu, 09 Apr 2026 19:36:18 +0000

Russian President Vladimir Putin has announced a temporary, 32-hour ceasefire of the ongoing conflict in Ukraine.

The calls came in light of Orthodox Easter celebrations, with expectation for the Ukrainian side to do the same, the Kremlin said.

The Kremlin announcement read: "In connection with the approaching holiday of Orthodox Easter, a ceasefire is declared from 4pm on April 11 to the end of the day of April 12.

"We proceed on the basis that the Ukrainian side will follow the example of the Russian Federation."

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A similar ceasefire was called around Easter last year, which was intended to last for 30 hours.

However, Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky said at the time that Russian troops had violated the ceasefire agreement nearly 3,000 times.

Leading up to today's decision, President Zelensky believed Russia would reject his proposal of a temporary truce for the holidays.

"The Russians have only intensified their strikes, turning what should have been silence in the skies into an Easter escalation," he wrote on X.

Russia has continued to carry out deadly, large-scale drone and missile attacks on Ukraine in recent days prior to the emerging ceasefire agreement.

Six civilians were killed and 40 others injured as Moscow launched hundreds of drones and missiles across the country earlier this week, as major daytime attacks have increased.

Efforts to end the war, led by the US, have stalled since President Donald Trump shifted focus to the conflict in the Middle East.

Meanwhile, President Zelensky agreed with a British intelligence assessment that the situation on the frontline in the east was the "most favourable" for Ukraine in 10 months, as the advance of Russian troops appears to have slowed.

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Last April, President Putin said there would be an end to all hostilities for 30 hours, with Kyiv saying it would also adhere.

"For this period, I order all military actions to cease," Putin said in his announcement of the previous ceasefire.

"We assume that the Ukrainian side will follow our example. At the same time, our troops must be ready to repel possible violations of the truce and provocations from the enemy, any of its aggressive actions".

However, President Zelensky detailed at the time a total of 1,882 cases of Russian shelling, 812 of which involved heavy weaponry.

"The nature of Ukrainian actions will continue to be mirrored - we will respond to silence with silence, our strikes will be to protect against Russian strikes," the Ukrainian head of state said of the 2025 ceasefire.

The latest developments of the conflict today saw Moscow threaten to attack countries in the Baltic, allowing Ukraine to use their airspace to fly drones to attack Russia.

Conflict is likely to resume with force upon the lifting of the mutually agreed ceasefire - if not before.

Efforts to end the war in Ukraine have largely stalled since the Iran war began, with talks between Kyiv, Moscow and Washington, which had already yielded little success, frozen since late February.

The war, meanwhile, has continued, with air attacks on Ukrainian cities and heavy fighting as Russia launches a spring offensive.

Conflict first escalated in February 2022, when Russia invaded Ukraine, starting one of the largest and deadliest wars in Europe since the Second World War.

It came as a major escalation of the existing conflict between the two countries, which began when Russia first attacked Ukraine in 2014.