AL HAYAT - Putin announces 'Easter truce' in Ukraine

The short-term order to Russia's troops to halt all combat activity -- which Ukraine has not said if it will match -- comes after months of US President Donald Trump pushing both Moscow and Kyiv to agree a truce.

He has so far failed to extract any major concessions from the Kremlin.

"Today from 1800 (1500 GMT) to midnight Sunday (2100 GMT Sunday), the Russian side announces an Easter truce," Putin said in televised comments during a meeting with the Russian chief of the general staff Valery Gerasimov.

Air raid alerts blasted across Ukraine on Saturday afternoon, including in the capital Kyiv, but ended right as Putin's order apparently came into force.

Easter, a major holiday for Christians, is celebrated on Sunday.

"I order for this period to stop all military action," Putin said, calling the truce motivated by "humanitarian reasons".

"We are going on the basis that the Ukrainian side will follow our example, while our troops must be ready to resist possible breaches of the truce and provocations by the enemy, any aggressive actions," Putin said.

Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky in a social media post responded sceptically to the truce proposal accused Putin of attempting to "play with human lives".

He did not say whether Ukraine would halt fighting during the period.

Russia and Ukraine on Saturday also held a large prisoner of war exchange, with each side handing back more than 240 prisoners of war, according to the Russian defence ministry.

Putin said that Gerasimov had told him Ukraine "more than 100 times... breached an agreement on not striking energy infrastructure".

Russia on Friday abandoned a moratorium on striking Ukrainian energy targets after each side accused the other of breaking a supposed deal without any formal agreement put in place.

The latest truce proposal will show "how sincere is the Kyiv's regime's readiness, its desire and ability to observe agreements and participate in a process of peace talks," Putin said.

Zelensky wrote on X that the truce proposal came as air raid alerts were announced in Ukraine due to drone attacks.

"As for yet another attempt by Putin to play with human lives -- at this moment, air raid alerts are spreading across Ukraine," Zelensky wrote on X, some 15 minutes before the order came into force.

"Shahed (attack) drones in our skies reveal Putin's true attitude toward Easter and toward human life," the president added, without saying whether Ukraine would observe the proposed truce.

The air alert in Kyiv stopped right at 1500 GMT.

Previous attempts at holding ceasefires for Easter in April 2022 and Orthodox Christmas in January 2023 were not implemented after both sides failed to agree on them.

Ukraine last month agreed to Trump's proposal for a full and unconditional 30-day ceasefire, only for Putin to reject it.

- Prisoner swap -

The defence ministry in Moscow announced Saturday that it had returned "246 Russian soldiers" being held as prisoners of war in a swap.

"In return 246 Ukrainian prisoners of war were handed over," the ministry said in a statement on social media.

"Also as a good will gesture, 31 wounded prisoners of war were handed over in exchange for 15 wounded Russian prisoners of war needing urgent medical help," the ministry added.

Gerasimov also said Russian troops had retaken over 99 percent of territory seized by Ukraine in the Kursk region in an incursion launched in August.

"In the areas of the Kursk region where Ukraine armed force mounted an incursion, the main part of the territory... is now liberated. That's 1,260 square kilometres, 99.5 percent," Gerasimov told Putin.

M.Sabhan--al-Hayat