32-Hour Ceasefire Between Russia and Ukraine on the Occasion of Easter

SadaNews - A temporary ceasefire between Russia and Ukraine will take effect starting Saturday afternoon and lasting until midnight Sunday-Monday on the occasion of Orthodox Easter, amid reports of casualties and injuries from attacks launched by Moscow on southern and northeastern Ukraine.

The ceasefire lasts for 32 hours, with the Kremlin announcing that it will begin at 4 PM (13:00 GMT) on Saturday and will continue until the end of Sunday.

The Kremlin indicated that it has directed Russian Defense Minister Andrei Belousov and Chief of the General Staff Valery Gerasimov to halt combat operations in all directions during this period.

On the other side, Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky stated that his country is prepared to respect the ceasefire during Orthodox Easter as announced by his Russian counterpart, reminding that Kyiv had proposed a ceasefire for the occasion.

Both sides had also agreed to a ceasefire during Orthodox Easter last year, while efforts to end the war between them remain stalled, with the conflict entering its fifth year.

Russian Attacks Before the Ceasefire

On the ground, authorities in Odesa, southern Ukraine, reported on Saturday that two people were killed and two others wounded in Russian airstrikes just hours before the ceasefire took effect, while the Ukrainian Air Force reported that Russia launched 128 drones against Ukraine on Thursday night.

Earlier, local authorities announced that two people were killed and about 15 others injured on Friday night in two separate attacks targeting the cities of Poltava in central Ukraine and Sumy in the northeast of the country.

Moscow controls just over 19% of Ukraine, most of which was seized during the early weeks of the conflict.

According to international media, the war between Moscow and Kyiv has cost hundreds of thousands of lives and forced millions to flee, making it the deadliest conflict in Europe since World War II.