Despite tensions over truce, warring sides exchanged 175 prisoners of war each, say officials
\n KYIV
\nA temporary truce between Russia and Ukraine entered into force on Saturday, with Kyiv warning it would respond \u201cimmediately\u201d if Russia violated it.
\nRussian President Vladimir Putin ordered the ceasefire on Thursday to coincide with Orthodox Easter, more than a week after Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky first made the proposal.
\nBoth sides have agreed to observe it.
\nThe ceasefire is due to last for 32 hours, from 4:00 pm (1300 GMT) on Saturday until the end of the day on Sunday, according to the Kremlin.
\n\u201cUkraine will adhere to the ceasefire and respond strictly in kind. The absence of Russian strikes in the air, on land, and at sea will mean no response from our side,\u201d Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky said in a post on X.
\nThe Ukrainian army said it was ready to \u201cimmediately\u201d respond if Russia violated it.
\nHours before the truce was due to start, Russia launched at least 160 drones at Ukraine, killing four people in the country\u2019s east and south and wounding dozens of others, Ukrainian authorities said.
\nThe southern Odesa region was among the hardest hit, with authorities reporting two dead and damage to civilian infrastructure.
\nA wave of Ukrainian drones sparked a fire at an oil depot and damaged apartment buildings in Russia\u2019s southern Krasnodar region, authorities said.
\nFour people died in Ukrainian drone strikes on Russian-occupied parts of Ukraine\u2019s eastern Donetsk and Kherson regions, according to Russian-installed officials.
\nUkrainians have expressed scepticism about whether the truce will hold.
\nThe two sides held a ceasefire for Orthodox Easter last year, but both accused the other of hundreds of violations.
\nDespite tensions over the truce, the warring sides exchanged 175 prisoners of war each on Saturday, according to officials.
\nThe United Arab Emirates helped mediate the exchange, the Russian defence ministry said.
\nPrisoner of war exchanges are one of the few areas of cooperation between the warring sides.
\nStalled diplomacy
\nUS-led talks aimed at ending the four-year conflict have stalled in recent weeks because of the war in the Middle East.
\nEven before the Iran war, progress towards a peace deal in Ukraine had been slow, due to differences over the issue of territory.
\nUkraine has proposed freezing the conflict along the current front lines.
\nBut Russia has rejected this, saying it wants Ukraine to give up all the territory in the Donetsk region that it currently controls \u2014 a demand Kyiv says is unacceptable.
\nSeveral rounds of US-led talks have failed to bring the warring sides closer to an agreement.
\nKremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov denied Russia had discussed the ceasefire with Ukraine or the United States in advance and said it was not linked to negotiations to end the war.
\nThe war has cost hundreds of thousands of lives and forced millions to flee their homes, making it Europe\u2019s deadliest conflict since World War II.
\nAfter four years, fighting on the front has come to a near standstill.
\nRussia has made small territorial gains at a high cost.
\nBut Kyiv recently managed to push back in the southeast and Russian advances have been slowing since late 2025, according to the US-based Institute for the Study of War (ISW).
\nApart from Ukrainian counter-attacks, analysts attributed the slowdown to Russia being banned from using SpaceX\u2019s Starlink satellites and Moscow\u2019s own efforts to block the Telegram messaging app.
\nBut the situation is unfavourable for Ukraine in the Donetsk region, near the cities of Kramatorsk and Sloviansk, according to the ISW.
\nMoscow occupies just over 19 percent of Ukraine, most of which was seized during the first weeks of the conflict.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
Despite tensions over truce, warring sides exchanged 175 prisoners of war each, say officials KYIV A temporary truce between Russia and Ukraine entered into force on Saturday, with Kyiv warning it would respond \u201cimmediately\u201d if Russia violated it. Russian President Vladimir Putin ordered the ceasefire on Thursday to coincide with Orthodox Easter, more than a […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":541386,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[6],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-541361","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-world"],"yoast_head":"\n