Russians in Moscow question logic of Easter truce (2025)

This photograph shows the interior of church heavily damaged by shelling in Kostyantynivka, eastern Donetsk region, on April 18, 2025, amid the Russian invasion of Ukraine. Agence France-Presse

MOSCOW — Moscow residents on Saturday gave a downbeat assessment of whether a 30-hour ceasefire with Ukraine announced by President Vladimir Putin will bring peace any closer.

Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky said Kyiv would observe the surprise truce, but accused Russia’s army of already breaking its promises with fresh ground and air attacks.

In a quiet district of south Moscow, there was little faith that any pause would signal a breakthrough in ending the three-year conflict.

READ: Zelensky says Ukraine will observe Putin’s Easter truce

“I guess that it won’t lead to anything,” said Svetlana, a 61-year-old pensioner who declined to give her surname.

“The Easter truce will lead to nothing, because Ukraine will not honor these agreements,” she added.

Maria Goranina, 85, also felt Ukraine could not be trusted.

“They will regroup after this truce and come at us again,” she told AFP.

“I wish that we could make peace with Ukraine forever,” she said.

READ: Orthodox Russians mark Easter with night service in Moscow cathedral

Putin had last month rejected a US proposal for a 30-day full and unconditional ceasefire, after Kyiv had accepted it.

US President Donald Trump threatened on Friday he would walk away from his efforts to broker a deal if he did not see meaningful progress soon.

Svetlana questioned why Russia should halt its offensive.

“Three years have gone by, so many maimed, disabled, dead. And we’ve gone through some part of Ukraine, and that’s it? I don’t understand at all then, what it’s all for.”

Since launching its offensive in February 2022, the Kremlin has quashed and outlawed all signs of public dissent against the offensive and Putin’s rule.

Those who criticise the army or question the military campaign can be punished under strict censorship rules, including with years in prison.

‘Press to the end’

Announcing the Easter truce, Putin called it a “humanitarian” gesture.

Moscow’s troops have been pushing forward on the battlefield for months.

Its army on Saturday claimed to have ejected Ukraine from another village in the Kursk border region, where Kyiv’s troops had seized hundreds of square kilometers in a brazen offensive last August.

Ukraine now holds just a slither of land there, while Russia has advanced further across the border into the northeastern Sumy region.

Trump’s return to the White House has also brought uncertainty over how much Ukraine can rely on the United States for military and political backing.

If Kyiv cannot replace American arms and dollars with other support, the conflict could turn even more in Moscow’s favor.

All of that has buoyed Russia’s confidence.

Yevgeny Pavlov, 58, said he did not think Russia should give Ukraine a breather.

“I do not believe in Ukraine. There will be no such truce, there will be shelling and so on,” he told AFP.

“There is no need to give a respite. If we press, it means we should press to the end.”