bodyType

customContents

entityId

entityUuid

articlePageQuery

filter

article

articleBaseAdvertisingInfoArticle

articleListArticle

articleSeoArticle

hooksArticleAcknowledgementGateOverlayArticle

hooksTrackPageViewArticle

hooksContentInterestArticle

articleLinkingDataContent

hooksAmpRedirectArticle

articleSchemaContent

liveArticle

advertZone

sentiment

contentLock

topics

types

sections

paywallTypes

createdDate

publishedDate

sponsorType

urlAlias

moreOnThisArticles

commentCount

authorLocations

authors

corrections

displaySlideShow

multimediaEmbed

printHeadline

seriesContainer

articleSpeeches

socialHeadline

headline

images

flag

firstTopic

glossary

flattenTypeIds

image

relatedLinks

relatedNewsletters

__typename

sponsor

pdfFiles

seriesReverseOrder

series

disableOffPlatformContent

published

updatedDate

summary

subHeadline

body

keywords

readingTime

customTimezone

liveContents

Agence France-Presse

A temporary truce between Russia and Ukraine entered into force on Saturday, with Kyiv warning it would respond “immediately” if Russia violated it.
Russian President Vladimir Putin ordered the ceasefire on Thursday to coincide with Orthodox Easter, more than a week after Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky first made the proposal.
Both sides have agreed to observe it.
The ceasefire is due to last for 32 hours, from 4.00pm on Saturday until the end of the day on Sunday, according to the Kremlin.
“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,” Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky said in a post on X.
The Ukrainian army said it was ready to “immediately” respond if Russia violated it.

Hours before the truce was due to start, Russia launched at least 160 drones at Ukraine, killing four people in the country’s east and south and wounding dozens of others, Ukrainian authorities said.
The southern Odesa region was among the hardest hit, with authorities reporting two dead and damage to civilian infrastructure.
A wave of Ukrainian drones sparked a fire at an oil depot and damaged apartment buildings in Russia’s southern Krasnodar region, authorities said.
Four people died in Ukrainian drone strikes on Russian-occupied parts of Ukraine’s eastern Donetsk and Kherson regions, according to Russian-installed officials.
Ukrainians have expressed scepticism about whether the truce will hold.
The two sides held a ceasefire for Orthodox Easter last year, but both accused the other of hundreds of violations.
Despite tensions over the truce, the warring sides exchanged 175 prisoners of war each on Saturday, according to officials.

The United Arab Emirates helped mediate the exchange, the Russian defence ministry said.
Prisoner of war exchanges are one of the few areas of cooperation between the warring sides.
Stalled diplomacy
US-led talks aimed at ending the four-year conflict have stalled in recent weeks because of the war in the Middle East.
Even before the Iran war, progress towards a peace deal in Ukraine had been slow, due to differences over the issue of territory.
Ukraine has proposed freezing the conflict along the current front lines.
But Russia has rejected this, saying it wants Ukraine to give up all the territory in the Donetsk region that it currently controls – a demand Kyiv says is unacceptable.
Several rounds of US-led talks have failed to bring the warring sides closer to an agreement.
Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov denied Russia had discussed the ceasefire with Ukraine or the United States in advance and said it was not linked to negotiations to end the war.


The war has cost hundreds of thousands of lives and forced millions to flee their homes, making it Europe’s deadliest conflict since World War II.
After four years, fighting on the front has come to a near standstill.
Russia has made small territorial gains at a high cost, but Ukraine recently managed to push back in the southeast and Russian advances have been slowing since late 2025, according to the US-based Institute for the Study of War (ISW).
Apart from Ukrainian counter-attacks, analysts attributed the slowdown to Russia being banned from using SpaceX’s Starlink satellites and Moscow’s own efforts to block the Telegram messaging app.
But the situation is unfavourable for Ukraine in the Donetsk region, near the cities of Kramatorsk and Sloviansk, according to the ISW.
Moscow occupies just over 19 per cent of Ukraine, most of which was seized during the first weeks of the conflict.


Russia and Ukraine begin 32-hour ceasefire for Orthodox Easter

Ukrainians sceptical as Russia’s Putin orders Easter truce

Why Japanese firm’s tie-up with Ukrainian drone maker sparks concerns in Russia

Russian special envoy in US to meet Trump administration officials

Ukraine war

Beams of light illuminate the sky over the graves of fallen Ukrainian soldiers as friends and relatives take part in a joint prayer and candlelight vigil at Lychakiv Military Cemetery in Lviv, western Ukraine, on February 23. Photo: EPA

US President Donald Trump shakes hands with Russian President Vladimir Putin after a summit on Ukraine in Alaska last August. Photo: AFP/Getty Images/TNS

A firefighter works at the site of a Russian drone strike near the town of Konotop, Ukraine’s Sumy region, on Friday. Photo: State Emergency Service of Ukraine in Sumy Region/Reuters

An Orthodox chaplain sprinkles holy water on a Gara combat drone in Zaporizhzhia region, Ukraine, on Wednesday. Photo: Reuters

A firefighter works at the site of a Russian drone strike near the town of Konotop in Ukraine on Friday. Photo: Press service of the State Emergency Service of Ukraine in Sumy region via Reuters

Russian conscripts called up for military service line up in Bataysk in the Rostov region, Russia, on Friday. Photo: Reuters

A drone of a Ukrainian regiment flies with an attached air bomb over a training ground in Zaporizhzhia last month, amid Russia’s attack on Ukraine. Photo: Reuters

The logo of Terra Drone is displayed at the company’s office in Tokyo. Photo: Reuters

Smoke rises from the Russian oil terminal at Primorsk, a Russian loading port in the Baltic Sea, following a drone attack claimed by Ukraine last month. Photo: Planet Labs PBC/AFP

News

World

Kyiv says it will reciprocate the Kremlin-ordered truce from Saturday afternoon until the end of Sunday


Kyiv says it will reciprocate the Kremlin-ordered truce from Saturday afternoon until the end of Sunday.


Russia and Ukraine begin 32-hour ceasefire for Orthodox Easter

.css-1c6uqr6{color:inherit;font-weight:inherit;font-size:inherit;font-family:inherit;line-height:inherit;overflow-wrap:break-word;}Kyiv says it will reciprocate the Kremlin-ordered truce from Saturday afternoon until the end of Sunday

Kyiv says it will reciprocate the Kremlin-ordered truce from Saturday afternoon until the end of Sunday