Moscow, Apr 19 (UNI) Russian President Vladimir Putin has declared an Easter truce in Ukraine, the Kremlin press service said on Saturday.
The break in fighting is scheduled to last from Saturday evening until Monday morning local time.
"During a meeting in the Kremlin, the commander-in-chief heard a report by Valery Gerasimov, chief of the general staff of the Russian armed forces, on the situation on the line of contact and said that the Russian side stops all hostilities from 1800 [1500 GMT] on April 19 to 0000 on April 21," the Kremlin's official Telegram channel said.
Putin was quoted as saying that while Russia "assumed" that Ukraine would follow suit, he warned that Russian troops should be ready to repel possible "provocations by the enemy".
According to the statement on Telegram, Putin said the truce would show how sincere Kyiv was in its willingness to "participate in the process of peace talks aimed at eliminating the root causes of the Ukrainian crisis."
Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy called the ceasefire "another attempt by Putin to play with human lives". He wrote on X that "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's announcement of truce came after US President Donald Trump on Friday said negotiations between Ukraine and Russia are "coming to a head" and insisted that neither side is "playing" him in his push to end the three-year war.
Last month, Ukraine endorsed a 30-day ceasefire deal proposed by the US, but Moscow rejected the plan.
The Russian Defense Ministry said it had instructed all group commanders in Ukraine on the ceasefire.
It said in a statement that Moscow's troops would adhere to the truce provided it is "mutually respected" by Ukraine.
The announcement comes as Russia's Defense Ministry said Saturday its forces have taken control of the village of Oleshnya, in the Kursk region on the border with Ukraine.
According to Russian state news agency Tass, Russia is still fighting to push Ukrainian forces out of the village of Gornal, some 11 km south of Oleshnya.
"The Russian military has yet to push the Ukrainian armed forces out of Gornal ... in order to completely liberate the Kursk region. Fierce fighting is underway in the settlement," the agency reported, citing Russia security agencies.
UNI RN