Home › Politics › Putin's Orthodox Easter ceasefire declaration of 9 April
Putin's Orthodox Easter ceasefire declaration of 9 April
Summary
A look back at the announcement of a weekend truce and the peace-talks offer that preceded it.
What did Russia's declared Easter pause amount to on paper? On 9 April 2026, Russian president Vladimir Putin declared a ceasefire in Ukraine for the weekend, to mark Orthodox Easter.
The announcement came days after Ukrainian president Volodymyr Zelenskyy said, on 4 April 2026, that Ukraine was willing to hold the next round of peace talks with Russia and the United States. The two statements sat side by side in the diplomatic calendar, though the reports of the time did not tie the ceasefire declaration to that offer.
The positions on the table
The talks formed part of a longer series of negotiations since Russia's full-scale invasion in February 2022. Putin has sought recognition of all occupied land as Russian, Russian control of regions it claims but does not fully occupy, guarantees that Ukraine will never join NATO, limits on Ukraine's military and the lifting of sanctions.
Zelenskyy has sought a ceasefire, a full withdrawal of Russian troops, the return of prisoners and abducted Ukrainian children, prosecution of Russian leaders for war crimes, and security guarantees against further aggression.
What the declaration covered
Putin's declaration applied to the weekend only and was framed around the Orthodox Easter holiday. Against the gap between the two sides' stated aims, a time-limited pause was a narrow step compared with the open-ended ceasefire Kyiv has said it wants.
