Putin declares Easter ceasefire; Zelenskyy says Russian bombardment 'has not subsided'
Russia, Ukraine swap hundreds of soldiers in largest exchange since war started
Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy said on Saturday that, according to his top commander, Russian artillery fire had not subsided despite the Kremlin's proclamation of an Easter ceasefire.
"As of now, according to the Commander-in-Chief reports, Russian assault operations continue on several frontline sectors, and Russian artillery fire has not subsided," Zelenskyy wrote on the social media platform X.
"Therefore, there is no trust in words coming from Moscow."
He recalled that Russia had last month rejected a U.S.-proposed full 30-day ceasefire and said that if Moscow agreed to "truly engage in a format of full and unconditional silence, Ukraine will act accordingly — mirroring Russia's actions."
"If a complete ceasefire truly takes hold, Ukraine proposes extending it beyond the Easter day of April 20," Zelenskyy wrote.
Citing humanitarian reasons, Russian President Vladimir Putin announced a temporary Easter ceasefire in Ukraine starting on Saturday.
According to the Kremlin, the ceasefire will start on Saturday at 6 p.m. Moscow time (11 a.m. ET) and end at midnight following Easter Sunday.
"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," Putin said at a meeting with Chief of the General Staff Valery Gerasimov, in a video shared by the Kremlin's Press Service.
Hundreds of PoWs swapped
The two sides, meanwhile, exchanged hundreds of prisoners of war on Saturday. Russia's Ministry of Defence said that 246 Russian service members were returned from territory controlled by Kyiv, and that "as a gesture of goodwill," 31 wounded Ukrainian PoWs were transferred in exchange for 15 wounded Russian soldiers in need of urgent medical care.
Zelenskyy said that 277 Ukrainian "warriors" have returned home from Russian captivity.
Both sides thanked the United Arab Emirates for its mediation.
Putin's ceasefire announcement came after U.S. President Donald Trump on Friday said negotiations between Ukraine and Russia are "coming to a head" and insisted that neither side is "playing" him in his push to end the grinding three-year war.
Trump spoke shortly after Secretary of State Marco Rubio warned that the U.S. may "move on" from trying to secure a Russia-Ukraine peace deal if there is no progress in the coming days, after months of efforts have failed to bring an end to the fighting.
In January 2023, Putin had ordered his forces in Ukraine to observe a unilateral, 36-hour ceasefire for Orthodox Christmas. Zelenskyy had dismissed it as playing for time to prepare additional attacks.
Russia fighting to retake all of Kursk region
Russia's Defence Ministry said on Saturday that its forces pushed Ukrainian troops from the village of Oleshnya, one of their last remaining footholds in Russia's Kursk region, where the Ukrainians staged a surprise incursion last year.
Gerasimov said on Saturday in a report to Putin, quoted by Russian state media, that Russia had retaken nearly all of the territory from Ukrainian forces.
"The main part of the region's territory, where the invasion took place, has now been liberated. This is 1,260 square kilometres, 99.5 per cent," Gerasimov said.
Zelenskyy wrote on X that Ukrainian forces "continued their activity on the territory of the Kursk region and are holding their positions."
The Associated Press was unable to immediately verify the claim by Russia. Russian and North Korean soldiers have nearly deprived Kyiv of a key bargaining chip by retaking most of the region.
According to Russian state news agency Tass, Russia is still fighting to push Ukrainian forces out of the village of Gornal, some 11 kilometres south of Oleshnya.
"The Russian military has yet to push the Ukrainian armed forces out of Gornal ... in order to completely liberate the Kursk region. Fierce fighting is underway in the settlement," the agency reported, citing Russian security agencies.
In other developments, the Ukrainian air force reported that Russia fired 87 exploding drones and decoys in the latest wave of attacks overnight into Saturday. It said 33 of them were intercepted and another 36 were lost, likely having been electronically jammed.
Russian attacks damaged farms in the Odesa region and sparked fires in the Sumy region overnight, Ukraine's State Emergency Service said on Saturday. Fires were contained, and no casualties were reported.
Russia's Ministry of Defence, meanwhile, said its air defence systems shot down two Ukrainian drones overnight into Saturday.
With files from The Associated Press