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Putin’s Easter truce is nothing more than a cheap propaganda play aimed at one audience: Donald Trump. This is evidenced by a number of statements and actions that have already been recorded in Ukraine and the West, despite the Kremlin’s announcement of a unilateral pause for 30 hours.
According to The Washington Post, Russian artillery fire did not stop even after the declared “truce” was supposed to take effect at 18:00 Moscow time on Saturday. President of Ukraine Volodymyr Zelenskyy has stated this directly:
“Shahids in our skies are Putin’s true attitude to Easter and to human lives.”
Less than an hour before the announced pause began, sirens sounded across Ukraine and Russian drones took to the skies. At the same time, despite Moscow’s fire and lies, Kyiv declared its readiness to mirror a full ceasefire if Russia did stop.
“Silence in return for silence, defensive strikes in response to attacks. If a full ceasefire does come, Ukraine proposes to extend it after Easter – up to 30 days. This would be a chance for peace. But 30 hours is a fiction created for the headlines,” Zelenskyy stressed.
Foreign Minister Andriy Sybiga added that the US proposal for a 30-day ceasefire has been on the table since 11 March, and Kyiv supported it, while Moscow refused. Instead, Russia has not stopped its attacks: on Palm Sunday alone, a Russian strike on Sumy killed 34 people and wounded 117 others. A similar tragedy in Kryvyi Rih on 4 April killed 21 people, including 9 children.
Washington’s position has also changed dramatically. Secretary of State Marco Rubio said that the US is ready to withdraw from the peace process if Moscow and Kyiv do not demonstrate a real willingness to end the war “within days”.
“We’re coming to a point where we have to decide: is this even realistic?” said Rubio.
President Trump, in turn, told reporters that the United States would “refuse to mediate” if the parties continued to complicate the negotiations. And then Putin unexpectedly welcomes diplomats to the United States and China – and suddenly announces an Easter truce. But, as The Washington Post notes, this looks like “a one-man show for Donald Trump,” to whom the Kremlin is seeking to demonstrate its alleged “readiness for peace.”
Analysts have no illusions.
“If Putin was serious, he would accept the long-term ceasefire that Ukraine has already agreed to,” said Eric Ciaramella, a Carnegie Endowment for International Peace expert.
This is not the first such game: The UN proposed an Easter truce back in 2022, and Russia refused. On Christmas Day 2023, it offered a truce again – Ukraine did not believe in the sincerity of the enemy. And in March, the Kremlin blocked the cessation of attacks in the Black Sea by setting conditions for the lifting of sanctions against Russian banks – blackmail that no one agreed to.
“Time and again, Putin has been ruffling feathers instead of gestures of peace. But normal America sees this. And it understands that Putin’s ceasefire is a lie and a sham.”
