Russian President Vladimir Putin has announced a temporary ceasefire in the Ukraine war to mark Orthodox Easter from late Saturday to Sunday.
It is set to begin on Saturday at 4 pm (1300 GMT) and last throughout Sunday, the Kremlin said in a statement on Thursday.
Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky confirmed the ceasefire announced by Putin, saying: “We proposed a ceasefire during the Easter holidays this year and will act accordingly.”
“People need an Easter free from threats and real movement toward peace, and Russia has a chance not to return to strikes after Easter as well,” he said on social media platform X.
Zelensky had repeatedly called for a holiday ceasefire.
Orthodox Christians, such as those in Russia and Ukraine, celebrate Easter on April 12 this year.
The Kremlin said Defence Minister Andrei Belousov and Chief of the General Staff Valery Gerasimov were ordered to suspend all military operations during the temporary truce.
Troops must remain ready to respond to any “provocations by the enemy,” the statement said. “We assume that the Ukrainian side will follow the example of the Russian Federation.”
During previous temporary ceasefires, both sides have accused each other of violations and of using the pauses to redeploy troops and resupply.
Last year, Putin announced a 30-hour ceasefire over Orthodox Easter. A similar truce was declared during the World War commemorations in May. However, the Russian president rejected calls for a Christmas ceasefire.
Russia and Ukraine swap over 1,000 bodies of soldiers
Earlier on Thursday, Russia and Ukraine exchanged the bodies of soldiers for the first time since February, parliamentary deputy Shamsail Saraliev told the Russian news portal rbc.ru.
He said the Ukrainian side had received 1,000 killed soldiers, while Russia received 41 bodies. The politician is responsible in the Duma for matters relating to the “special military operation,” as the war is officially called in Moscow.
The office of prisoner-of-war affairs in Kiev confirmed on Telegram that Ukraine had received 1,000 bodies.
Forensic experts would now examine the bodies, it said. This is intended to rule out, among other things, that bodies of Russian soldiers were handed over by mistake.
The staff added that “after the identification of the deceased, the bodies will be handed over to the families for dignified burial.”
Russia and Ukraine exchange soldiers’ bodies on a regular basis. Last year alone, Kiev received back more than 15,000 bodies of fallen soldiers, according to official figures. Moscow received only a fraction of that.
Due to the slow but steady advance of Russian troops, the Ukrainian army is not always able to recover its own fallen soldiers. Ukraine has been defending itself against a Russian invasion with Western help for more than four years.