Russian President Vladimir Putin has declared a three-day full ceasefire in Ukraine to coincide with World War II Victory Day commemorations.
The Kremlin announced that the 72-hour ceasefire would run from the start of May 8, 2025, to the end of 10 May, 2025.
On May 9, 2025, known as Victory Day, Russians celebrate the 1945 end of what they call the “Great Patriotic War.”
The Victory Day parade traditionally features heavy weaponry and is intended as a display of Russian military strength, reinforcing a narrative of resilience and national pride.
The Kremlin said that the decision to have a ceasefire was based on “humanitarian considerations,” adding that all hostilities will be suspended during this period.
“Russia believes that the Ukrainian side should follow this example. In the event of violations of the truce by the Ukrainian side, the Russian armed forces will give an adequate and effective response.”
Kremlin
Moscow also said that it was ready to engage constructively with international partners to address the “root causes” of the conflict.
For Russia, that terminology serves as code for some of its more hardline aims in a broader settlement – including preventing Ukraine from joining NATO, limiting the size of its military, and having a say over Ukraine’s domestic politics.
Russia has previously rejected a US proposal for an immediate and full 30-day halt in the fighting by imposing far-reaching conditions.
Ukraine has accepted it, Volodymyr Zelenskyy, the country’s President, has said.
Putin also unilaterally declared a 30-hour truce around Easter, which Kyiv met with immediate skepticism but did agree to.
Later, each side accused the other of violating it. Since then, Russia has continued pounding Ukrainian cities, killing scores of civilians across the country.
An adviser to the head of Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy’s office responded to Russia’s announcement of a May ceasefire by saying that “the ceasefire must be unconditional, because everything else is just Putin’s tactical games.”
US Efforts To Broker A Broader Peace Deal Remain Elusive
If respected by both sides, the May ceasefire would mark the first full ceasefire since the start of Russia’s full-scale invasion of Ukraine more than three years ago.
However, the temporary nature of the truce suggests that US efforts to broker a broader peace deal remain elusive.
Putin’s ceasefire announcement comes amid mounting US frustration with Russia over its continued attacks on Ukraine.
US President, Donald Trump urged Russia on Sunday, April 27, 2025, to stop its attacks in Ukraine while his top diplomat said that the US might walk away from peace efforts if it did not see progress.
Trump told reporters as he travelled back to the White House, “I was very disappointed that missiles were [launched] by Russia,” adding, “I want [Putin] to stop shooting, sit down and sign a deal.”
Although Trump has repeatedly claimed he was close to ending the war, now in its fourth year, his efforts to broker a peace between Russia and Ukraine have so far yielded little result, stalled by Moscow’s hardline demands.
In a series of interviews with foreign media, Russia’s top diplomat, Sergei Lavrov, hinted that Moscow continued to maintain maximalist demands – conditions that both Ukraine and the US have repeatedly pushed back against.
In an interview published with a Brazilian outlet, Lavrov said that Moscow insisted on the international recognition of its hold over Crimea, as well as the entirety of Ukraine’s Donetsk, Luhansk, Kherson and Zaporizhzhia regions, as a condition for peace negotiations.
Speaking to another news agency a day earlier, Lavrov also pushed against future western military support for Ukraine.
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