Kirill Budanov*, head of the office of the Ukrainian president, said in an interview with local media that the Easter ceasefire is unlikely to develop into a lasting halt in hostilities. He noted that similar initiatives had been attempted before but failed to produce any sustained results.

In his assessment, the current situation is unlikely to differ from previous cases, suggesting that the truce would follow the same pattern as earlier attempts.

On April 9, Russian President Vladimir Putin announced an Easter ceasefire set to take effect from 16:00 on Saturday, April 11, through the end of Sunday. Moscow expressed hope that the Ukrainian side would also suspend combat operations, while instructing its forces to remain prepared for possible provocations.

By the morning of April 12, Russia’s Defense Ministry reported that Ukrainian forces had violated the ceasefire nearly 2,000 times.

A similar pattern was recorded in 2025, when an Easter truce was also declared. According to the Russian side, that ceasefire was accompanied by thousands of violations by Ukrainian forces, with more than 4,900 incidents reported after it ended.

* Listed by Rosfinmonitoring as a terrorist and extremist.