According to the Russian president, the Russian forces will lay down their arms from Saturday evening at 18:00 local time to midnight between Sunday and Monday, thus for 30 hours.
Putin urges in a televised speech Ukraine to follow the Russian decision, but simultaneously warns his own forces to be "prepared for possible breaches of the ceasefire by Kyiv".
An hour after Putin's words, Ukraine's President Zelensky responded on X:
"In yet another attempt by Putin to play with human lives, just now, air raid sirens are sounding over Ukraine... Drones over our airspace reveal Putin's real image of Easter and human lives".
His Foreign Minister Andrij Sybiha writes that Ukraine is ready to agree to a ceasefire – but then with the conditions set by the USA in March and which Ukraine has agreed to, and which Russia refused to accept.
"Putin has now announced his alleged willingness to enter into a ceasefire. 30 hours instead of 30 days. Unfortunately, we have a long history of his statements not matching his actions. We know that his words cannot be trusted", writes Sybiha on X.
And the country's disinformation chief Andrij Kovalenko claims that Russian forces are not following Putin's orders on ceasefire. He writes on Telegram that Russia "continues shooting without stopping. All to blame Ukraine”.
"Now we hear Putin speak"
But it's not just in Ukraine that Putin's move is being met with skepticism.
One should take it with great skepticism. There is a context in which the move is made, as the Americans are threatening to leave the negotiations on Ukraine, says Lieutenant Colonel Johan Huovinen at the Defense University in Stockholm.
Huovinen also emphasizes that the move does not come from Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov, or from spokesperson Dmitry Peskov, as has previously been the case in comments on the negotiations.
Now we hear Putin speak, says Huovinen, which has significance in the bilateral contacts with the USA that Russia so cherishes.
Played a weak card
On Friday, the US President Donald Trump threatened to abandon efforts to reach a breakthrough in the negotiations, if a ceasefire did not seem possible within the next few days.
Huovinen compares it to a card game where he says Putin is playing a "weak card" to keep the game going:
Now we'll see what the reactions will be from Washington DC.
Trump's statement followed the proposal presented by Rubio in the Ukraine talks in Paris on Thursday. It included, among other things, easing of sanctions against Russia and a repetition of previous messages that Ukraine cannot become a member of NATO. Additionally, Russia would be allowed to retain the occupied areas in Ukraine.
