Putin declares Easter truce, Ukraine unimpressed
- 20 Apr 2025
Russian President Vladimir Putin has announced an Easter truce to last from Saturday evening – Moscow time – till after midnight on Sunday. He told the Chief of the General Staff Valery Gerasimov on a recorded video, “We assume that the Ukrainian side will follow our example. At the same time, our troops must be ready to repel possible violations of the truce and provocations from the enemy, any of its aggressive actions.”
Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky called the ceasefire “another attempt by Putin to play with human lives”. He said “air raid alerts are spreading across Ukraine” and “Shahed drones in our skies reveal Putin’s true attitude toward Easter and toward human life.” And in the middle of the bitter attitude towards each other between Putin and Zelensky, Russia and Ukraine had exchanged prisoners, and this time without international mediation.
Earlier, it was through the efforts of United Arab Emirates and Saudi Arabia that the swapping of prisoners had occurred.
There is speculation that Putin’s Easter truce is a prelude to a longer truce and to negotiations between Russia and Ukraine. There is a suggestion that Putin is indeed looking forward to an extended truce, but the two sides are not able to settle on the terms. This has pushed the United States under President Donald Trump, which had been trying hard to arrange a truce, to give up hope. The US Secretary of State, Marco Rubio, had said that the US would turn away from its mediatory efforts if there is no quick breakthrough, and truce is worked out to facilitate negotiations.
President Putin might be more inclined to a truce because Russia is in an apparently advantageous position on the battlefront. Russian reports say that Ukrainian troops have been pushed back from Russian territory in the Kursk region.
Ukraine had intruded into the Russian territory last winter with the intention of being in a stronger bargaining position at the time of negotiations. President Zelensky is desperately hoping to get to the negotiating table with terms that favour Ukraine.
For that to happen, he needs unqualified American support. But President Trump is not too willing to stand with Ukraine. He is more favourable to President Putin, and he was suggesting that Ukraine must accept that Russia will keep the Ukrainian territory under its control. It will be difficult for President Zelensky to accept because that would be the end of his presidency and of his political career.
He had become president on an anti-Russia agenda. And the Russian invasion of Ukraine was an attempt by President Putin to replace President Zelensky.
Meanwhile, the European Union (EU) has expressed strong support for Ukraine but it is not able to match its words with military and financial aid. And President Trump is unwilling to extend the military and financial aid that his predecessor Joe Biden had provided Ukraine.
It is a strategic gridlock, and no player – Russia, Ukraine, the EU and the US – are able to reach an agreement that would satisfy all the players. And no one of them is in a position to be flexible in their adopted stance.
Russia cannot be seen to be yielding to Ukrainian demands, nor can Ukraine give up its claims on its own territory. The US does not see any advantage in supporting even if the rare minerals agreement between Washington and Kyiv is reached.
The EU does not want to be seen as legitimising Russian claims on its sphere of influence in the eastern part of Europe, which was once part of the bloc when the former Soviet Union, now Russia, has wielded indirect power over the region.