On Monday, a brief and unexpected Easter truce in the Ukraine war declared by Russian president Vladimir Putin came to an end. It lasted barely 30 hours.
During that time, both Ukraine and Russia repeatedly accused each other of violating the ceasefire and launching new attacks.
DW takes a closer look at the timing, the motives — and the fallout from this short-lived pause in fighting.
How did the truce start
The ceasefire was initiated by Russia. President Putin announced it unilaterally just two hours before it began. He claimed the decision was made for “humanitarian reasons.”
Following Putin’s statement, Volodymyr Zelenskyy initially accused the Russian president of playing with people’s lives but eventually agreed to the ceasefire.
What Russia and Ukraine say about the results
Most Kyiv residents that DW spoke to said they were skeptical from the start about Putin’s so-called “humanitarian” gesture. “I don’t believe it for a second. Putin never keeps his word. It’s all a farce,” one woman from Kyiv told DW.
Volodymyr Fesenko, chairman of the Penta Center for Applied Political Studies in Kyiv, told DW that Russia deliberately provoked fighting during the ceasefire and used the pause as cover to launch assault operations in certain areas.
On Monday, Ukrainian president Volodymyr Zelenskyy wrote on his Telegram channel that Russia violated frontline silence 2,935 times during the ceasefire.
He also mentioned that the Kremlin hadn’t responded to his proposal for a 30-day ceasefire, but promised that the Ukrainian army would act “symmetrically.”
“We will respond to silence with silence. To defend against Russian strikes, there will be our strikes,” the statement read.
Kremlin spokesperson Dmitry Peskov said, however, that Vladimir Putin hadn’t given any orders to extend the “Easter ceasefire” he had announced.
In response to the US State Department’s call to prolong the ceasefire, Russian Foreign Ministry spokesperson Maria Zakharova accused Kyiv of failing to uphold the truce.
Why the ceasefire was so short
Many observers have pointed out the suddenness of Putin’s announcement of the ceasefire.
Only two hours were supposed to pass between his statement and the start of the ceasefire. For Ukraine, it could have been difficult to prepare technically for the truce in such a short timeframe.
Volodymyr Fesenko believes that Putin’s urgent, unilateral ceasefire was intended to set a trap for Ukraine. He notes that within two hours, Ukraine had to make a political decision, coordinate it, and then issue orders to the military.
“Naturally, Ukraine could not have started the ceasefire at 18:00, even if there had been such a desire. It would have been simply impossible,” Fesenko said.
Why Putin decided to please Trump?
The Easter ceasefire was an idea proposed by US President Donald Trump. Last week, Trump threatened to abandon efforts to achieve peace in Ukraine and pull out of the negotiation process if he didn’t see a willingness from both Russia and Ukraine to come to an agreement.
Political analysts that DW talked to are convinced that it was the desire to continue negotiations with the US that forced Putin to announce the ceasefire.
Nikolay Petrov, a visiting fellow at the German Institute for International and Security Affairs in Berlin, believes that Vladimir Putin decided to continue a game with Trump.
“This ceasefire — even if only for 30 hours — is timed exactly for Easter, as the Americans had previously requested. It looks very good [for the Kremlin]. Especially since the initiative comes from Russia, and especially since it doesn’t really oblige them to anything,” Petrov said.
In exchange for accommodating Trump’s wishes — even if not fully — Putin could have also achieved some of his own goals. Among these, Volodymyr Fesenko points to the weakening of Western unity, reducing Russia’s dependence on China, and returning to the exclusive club of influential world leaders.
What’s next
Two hours before the Easter ceasefire ended, US President Donald Trump expressed hope on his social media platform Truth Social that Russia and Ukraine “will make a deal this week.” He promised that as a result, both countries would have the opportunity to engage in “big business” with the US.
Political analysts agree that Trump seeks to pull the US out of this conflict, but they have differing views on whether he will actively pursue peace between Ukraine and Russia.
“Trump’s position is not to achieve peace in Ukraine at any cost, but to pull the US out of this war,” says Nikolay Petrov from the German Institute for International and Security Affairs.
In his view, the US administration is focused on stopping its involvement in the war, and it doesn’t matter to them whether this happens against the backdrop of a long ceasefire or a lasting peace.
Volodymyr Fesenko, on the other hand, is convinced that Donald Trump will be encouraged by the fact that Putin at least partially responded to his demands and announced a ceasefire.
Now, according to Fesenko, Trump will now push even more actively for a complete ceasefire.
Edited by: Helen Whittle
