Vladimir Putin announced an Easter truce from the evening of April 19 until midnight on April 21, with hostilities stopping along the entire front line, he announced at a meeting with the Chief of the General Staff of the Russian Armed Forces, Valery Gerasimov.
“We assume that the Ukrainian side will follow our example. At the same time, our troops must be ready to repel possible ceasefire violations and provocations from the enemy, any of its aggressive actions,” Putin said, adding that he expects provocations, as according to his data, the Armed Forces of Ukraine “more than a hundred times” violated the moratorium on strikes against energy infrastructure. Meanwhile, international observers and OSINT specialists have not recorded such a number of strikes on energy infrastructure by the Armed Forces of Ukraine during the month of the moratorium.
“As for another attempt by Putin to play with people's lives — an air raid alert is now spreading across the territory of Ukraine. At 17:15, Russian attack drones were detected in our sky. ‘Shaheds in our sky — this is Putin's true attitude towards Easter and people's lives,’” reacted Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky to Putin's statements.
Simultaneously with the announcement of the truce, Russia and Ukraine exchanged prisoners of war in the format “246 for 246,” reported the movement “Our Exit” and confirmed by the Russian Ministry of Defense. In exchange for 15 wounded Russian soldiers in need of urgent assistance, 31 wounded prisoners of war were handed over to Kyiv, the department reported. The United Arab Emirates once again acted as a mediator in the exchange.
The last large-scale prisoner exchange between Russia and Ukraine took place on March 19. At that time, the parties exchanged 175 people each.