Russian President Vladimir Putin declared a unilateral Easter ceasefire in Ukraine, ordering his forces to end hostilities at 6pm Moscow time (1500 GMT) on Saturday until the end of Sunday.

“Based on humanitarian considerations … the Russian side announces an Easter truce. I order a stop to all military activities for this period,” Putin told his military chief, Valery Gerasimov, at a meeting in the Kremlin.

“We assume that Ukraine will follow our example. At the same time, our troops should be prepared to repel possible violations of the truce and provocations by the enemy, any aggressive actions,” Putin added.

He said that Gerasimov had told him Ukraine “more than 100 times… breached an agreement on not striking energy infrastructure”.

Russia on Friday abandoned a moratorium on striking Ukrainian energy targets after each side accused the other of breaking a supposed deal without any formal agreement put in place.

The latest truce proposal will show “how sincere is the Kyiv’s regime’s readiness, its desire and ability to observe agreements and participate in a process of peace talks,” Putin said.

Previous attempts at holding ceasefires for Easter in April 2022 and Orthodox Christmas in January 2023 were not implemented after both sides failed to agree on them.