(AP) – Russian President Vladimir Putin has announced a temporary Easter ceasefire in Ukraine, the Kremlin said on Saturday.
According to the Kremlin, the ceasefire will continue from 6pm on Saturday (1500 GMT) until midnight after Easter Sunday (2100 GMT).
“Today, led by humanitarian considerations from 18:00 to 00:00, from Sunday to Monday, the Russian side declares an Easter ceasefire. I order all military operations during this period to be suspended.”
“We assume that the Ukrainian side follows our example, and at the same time our troops must be ready to fight off any possible truce or provocation from the enemy.
The announcement came on the same day that the Russian Ministry of Defence said it had pushed Ukrainian troops from one of the last remaining footholds in Russia’s Kursk region. The Russian troops controlled the village of Oleshnia on the border with Ukraine, the ministry said.
The Associated Press was unable to verify the claim immediately and there was no immediate response from Ukrainian officials.
According to the Russian state news agency TASS, Russia is still fighting to push Ukrainian troops out of Gornar village, about seven miles (11 kilometers) south of Oresia.
“The Russian army is ousting Ukrainian troops from Gornar in order to fully liberate the Kursk region. A fierce battle is underway in reconciliation,” the agency cited Russian security agencies.
Russian and North Korean soldiers had little robbed Kiev from Kiev by seizing most of the area where Ukrainian forces carried out a surprising invasion last year.
In other developments, the Ukrainian Air Force reported that Russia had fired 87 explosive drones and decoys in the wave of its latest attacks up to Saturday. Of these, 33 were intercepted, another 36 was lost and probably jammed electronically.
Ukrainian provincial emergency services said on Saturday that Russia destroyed farms in the Odesa region and sparked a fire in the Smie region overnight. The fire was contained and no victims were reported.
Meanwhile, the Russian Ministry of Defense said the air defense system fired down two Ukrainian drones overnight on Saturday.
