Rescuers search for 17-year-old Danylo Khudia and his parents at the side of an apartment building hit by a Russian missile strike, amid Russia's attack on Ukraine, in Kyiv, Ukraine, April 24, 2025.
Image: Reuters / Valentyn Ogirenko
MOSCOW - Russian President Vladimir Putin on Monday declared a three-day ceasefire in May in the war with Ukraine to mark the 80th anniversary of the victory of the Soviet Union and its allies in World War II.
The Kremlin said the 72-hour ceasefire would run for three days either side of May 9, when Putin will be hosting international leaders including Chinese President Xi Jinping for lavish celebrations to commemorate victory over Nazi Germany.
"All military actions are suspended for this period. Russia believes that the Ukrainian side should follow this example," it said in a statement.
"In the event of violations by the Ukrainian side, Russia's armed forces will give an adequate and effective response."
There was no immediate response from Kyiv to the unilateral truce announcement - the second by Putin in quick succession, following a 30-hour Easter ceasefire that each side accused the other of violating countless times.
Against a background of increasing impatience from the United States, both moves appeared aimed by the Kremlin leader at signalling to US President Donald Trump that Russia is still interested in peace.
Ukraine and its European allies say they do not believe this, while pushing back against US proposals they see as skewed towards Russia.
The latest announcement came after Trump criticised Putin for a deadly Russian attack on Kyiv last week and voiced concern at the weekend that Putin was "just tapping me along". Washington has repeatedly threatened to abandon its peace efforts unless there is real progress.
Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskiy, who met Trump on the sidelines of Pope Francis' funeral in Rome on Saturday, has said Kyiv would be ready to hold talks with Moscow once a ceasefire deal has stopped the fighting.
Zelenskiy's chief of staff, Andriy Yermak, said on Monday that continuing Russian attacks contradicted the Kremlin's statements about wanting peace.
"Russia is not ceasing fire at the front and is attacking Ukraine with Shaheds right now," Yermak wrote on Telegram before the ceasefire announcement, referring to Iranian-made drones widely used by Russian forces.
"All the Russians' statements about peace without ceasing fire are just plain lies."
KREMLIN SAYS SIGNAL SHOULD COME FROM UKRAINE
The Kremlin statement said: "The Russian side once again declares its readiness for peace talks without preconditions, aimed at eliminating the root causes of the Ukrainian crisis, and constructive interaction with international partners."
Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov told reporters earlier that the signal for direct talks should come from Ukraine, as it currently had a "legal ban" on negotiating with Putin.
He was referring to a 2022 decree in which Zelenskiy ruled out such negotiations, after Russia had claimed four Ukrainian regions as its own in an action condemned as illegal by most countries at the United Nations.
Ukraine accuses Russia of playing for time in order to try to seize more of its territory, and has urged greater international pressure to get Moscow to stop fighting.
Russia accuses Ukraine of being unwilling to make any concessions and of seeking a ceasefire only on its own terms.
- REUTERS
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