Russia and Ukraine declare 32-hour ceasefire for Orthodox Easter weekend.

Russia and Ukraine – (Web Desk) – Russia and Ukraine have agreed to stop fighting over the Orthodox Easter holidays. Both leaders announced a 32-hour ceasefire on Thursday. It is one of the rarest pauses this war has seen in four years.

Short truces have happened before. But they never lasted long. And both sides were always quick to point fingers at each other for breaking them.

Peace talks have hit a wall. The United States has turned most of its attention toward the Middle East. Before that shift happened, Ukraine’s President Zelenskyy had quietly sent a ceasefire proposal to Russia through Washington.

Late Thursday night the Kremlin spoke. Putin ordered all Russian forces to stop fighting. The order covered every direction along the front line. Russia said its troops would still be ready to respond if Ukraine tried anything.

The Kremlin also made one thing clear. It expects Ukraine to do the same. There was no mention though that Kyiv had actually suggested the idea first.

Zelenskyy replied within hours. He said Ukraine had been pushing for this kind of pause for a long time. He confirmed his country would honor the truce. He also said people on both sides deserve an Easter without fear and that Russia should think twice before going back to war after the holiday ends.

This war has already taken hundreds of thousands of lives. Millions of people have been forced to leave their homes. Historians now call it the deadliest conflict in Europe since World War II.

Things have slowed down a lot on the battlefield. Russia is still moving forward but only barely. Every small gain has come at a very high price.

Ukraine has actually managed to push back in some areas in the southeast. Military analysts at the Institute for the Study of War say Russian advances have been getting slower since late 2025.

Two things helped slow Russia down. First it lost access to SpaceX’s Starlink satellites. Second Moscow tried to block Telegram inside Russia. Both tools were heavily used by soldiers on the ground to coordinate drone strikes.

Drones have become the defining weapon of this war. Losing reliable communication made a real difference.

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Still Ukraine is under serious pressure in the Donetsk region. The cities of Kramatorsk and Sloviansk are in a tough spot. Russia wants Ukraine to hand them over without a fight as part of any future peace deal. Kyiv has refused.

Ukraine has also started hitting Russian energy targets harder in recent days. It focused on oil ports after fuel prices jumped because of the situation in the Middle East.

Multiple rounds of US led talks have gone nowhere. Washington is now focused on Iran. The peace negotiations are completely stuck. Russia keeps demanding land and political changes that Zelenskyy says would basically mean giving up. Right now Russia controls just over 19 percent of Ukrainian territory. Most of it was taken in the very first weeks of the invasion.