Ukraine wary of Putin’s Easter truce and says it will reciprocate only a genuine ceasefire

CHERNIHIV REGION, Ukraine (AP) — Ukraine said it would reciprocate any genuine ceasefire by Moscow, but voiced skepticism after Russian President Vladimir Putin announced a temporary Easter truce in Ukraine starting Saturday.

The announcement from Kyiv came as Russia and Ukraine conducted their largest prisoner exchange since Moscow’s full-scale invasion started over three years ago. Putin announced a temporary Easter ceasefire in Ukraine starting Saturday, citing humanitarian reasons. According to the Kremlin, the ceasefire will last from 6 p.m. Moscow time (1500 GMT) on Saturday to midnight (2100 GMT) following Easter Sunday.

Putin offered no details on how the ceasefire would be monitored or whether it would cover airstrikes or ongoing ground battles that rage around the clock.

Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy said if Russia is genuinely ready to observe a full and unconditional ceasefire, Ukraine will mirror that approach and strike only in defense.

He said such a gesture, particularly over the Easter weekend, could reveal Moscow’s true intentions.

“If a full ceasefire truly takes hold, Ukraine proposes extending it beyond Easter Day on April 20,” Zelenskyy said on Telegram. “That will reveal Russia’s true intentions, as 30 hours are enough for headlines, but not for genuine confidence-building measures.”

Zelenskyy added that, according to military reports, Russian assaults and artillery fire continued along parts of the 1,000-kilometer (600-mile) long front line.

In response to the ceasefire announcement, Ukrainian Foreign Minister Andrii Sybiha said that Kyiv had in March “agreed unconditionally to the U.S. proposal of a full interim ceasefire for 30 days,” which Russia rejected.

“Putin has now made statements about his alleged readiness for a ceasefire. 30 hours instead of 30 days,” Sybiha continued, writing on X. “Unfortunately, we have had a long history of his statements not matching his actions.”

Putin's ceasefire announcement came after U.S. President Donald Trump on Friday said negotiations between Ukraine and Russia are “coming to a head” and insisted that neither side is “playing” him in his push to end the grinding three-year war.

The two sides meanwhile exchanged hundreds of POWs on Saturday. Russia’s Ministry of Defense said that 246 Russian service members were returned from Ukraine, and 31 wounded Ukrainian POWs were transferred in exchange for 15 wounded Russian soldiers in need of urgent medical care.

Zelenskyy said that 277 Ukrainian “warriors" have returned home from Russian captivity.

Both sides thanked the United Arab Emirates for their mediation.

Most of the Ukrainians freed in the latest prisoner exchange are young people born after 2000, Ukraine’s Coordination Headquarters for the Treatment of Prisoners of War said Friday.

Outside a hospital in Ukraine’s Northern Chernihiv region, where recently freed POWs were brought after the exchange at the border, dozens of relatives stood waiting.

Among them was 48-year-old Nataliia Lohvynchuk, who rushed toward the bus the moment it arrived. She hadn’t seen her son in three years, since he was captured during the battle for Mariupol in the spring of 2022.

Her son, 23-year-old Ihor Lohvynchuk, lost about 40 kilograms (88 pounds) in captivity. “It still doesn’t feel real,” he said softly. “We’re not really here yet. We all made it back, but we’re still not here.

His mother, overcome with emotion and embracing her son, issued a plea: “We call on the entire world, on every country — help us bring all our boys home.”

Thousands of POWs remain in captivity. The exchange is the fourth this year and the 63rd since the start of Russia’s full-scale invasion.

Since the outbreak of the war, a total of 4,552 Ukrainians, both military and civilians, have been returned from captivity.

Russia’s Defense Ministry said Saturday its forces pushed Ukrainian troops from the village of Oleshnya, one of their last remaining footholds in Russia’s Kursk region, where the Ukrainians staged a surprise incursion last year.

Gerasimov said Saturday in a report to Putin, quoted by Russian state media, that Russia had retaken nearly all of the territory from Ukrainian forces.

“The main part of the region’s territory, where the invasion took place, has now been liberated. This is 1,260 square kilometers, 99.5%,” Gerasimov said.

Zelenskyy wrote on X that Ukrainian forces “continued their activity on the territory of the Kursk region and are holding their positions.” Ukraine also claimed that it holds a presence beyond the Kursk region in Russian territory with an aim of preventing the offensive on the Sumy region and to fight on enemy's soil.

The Associated Press was unable to verify the claim immediately from Russia.

According to the Russian state news agency Tass, Russia is still fighting to push Ukrainian forces out of the village of Gornal, some 7 miles (11 kilometers) south of Oleshnya.

In other developments, the Ukrainian air force reported that Russia fired 87 exploding drones and decoys in the latest wave of attacks overnight into Saturday. It said 33 of them were intercepted and another 36 were lost, likely having been electronically jammed.

Russian attacks damaged farms in the Odesa region and sparked fires in the Sumy region overnight, Ukraine’s State Emergency Service said Saturday. Fires were contained, and no casualties were reported.

Russia’s Ministry of Defense, meanwhile, said its air defense systems shot down two Ukrainian drones overnight into Saturday.

Follow AP’s coverage of the war in Ukraine at https://apnews.com/hub/russia-ukraine

An injured Ukrainian soldier makes a victory sign after returning from captivity in a POW exchange in Ukraine, on Saturday, April. 19, 2025. (AP Photo/Evgeniy Maloletka)

A medical worker uses a wheelchair to move an injured Ukrainian soldier from an ambulance after returning from captivity in a POW exchange in Ukraine, on Saturday, April. 19, 2025. (AP Photo/Evgeniy Maloletka)

An injured Ukrainian soldier waves a national flag after returning from captivity in a POW exchange in Ukraine, on Saturday, April. 19, 2025. (AP Photo/Evgeniy Maloletka)

A medical worker moves an injured Ukrainian soldier from an ambulance after returning from captivity in a POW exchange in Ukraine, on Saturday, April. 19, 2025. (AP Photo/Evgeniy Maloletka)

Ukrainian servicemen ride in a bus after returning from captivity in a POW exchange in Ukraine, on Saturday, April. 19, 2025. (AP Photo/Evgeniy Maloletka)

A Ukrainian soldier hugs his comrade after returning from captivity in a POW exchange in Ukraine, on Saturday, April. 19, 2025. (AP Photo/Evgeniy Maloletka)

A medical worker uses a wheelchair to move an injured Ukrainian soldier from an ambulance after returning from captivity in a POW exchange in Ukraine, on Saturday, April. 19, 2025. (AP Photo/Evgeniy Maloletka)

A medical worker uses a stretcher to move an injured Ukrainian soldier after returning from captivity in a POW exchange in Ukraine, on Saturday, April. 19, 2025. (AP Photo/Evgeniy Maloletka)

A Ukrainian soldier hugs his comrade after returning from captivity in a POW exchange in Ukraine, on Saturday, April. 19, 2025. (AP Photo/Evgeniy Maloletka)

A Ukrainian soldier hugs his comrade after returning from captivity in a POW exchange in Ukraine, on Saturday, April. 19, 2025. (AP Photo/Evgeniy Maloletka)

Russian President Vladimir Putin, right, speaks with Russian Chief of General Staff Gen. Valery Gerasimov during their meeting at the Kremlin in Moscow, Russia, Saturday, April 19, 2025. (Vyacheslav Prokofyev, Sputnik, Kremlin Pool Photo via AP)

Russian President Vladimir Putin speaks with Russian Chief of General Staff Gen. Valery Gerasimov during their meeting at the Kremlin in Moscow, Russia, Saturday, April 19, 2025. (Vyacheslav Prokofyev, Sputnik, Kremlin Pool Photo via AP)

In this photo taken from video distributed by Russian Defense Ministry Press Service on Friday, April 18, 2025, the Russian BM-21 "Grad" self-propelled 122 mm multiple rocket launcher fires towards Ukrainian positions in Ukraine. (Russian Defense Ministry Press Service via AP)

In this photo taken from video distributed by Russian Defense Ministry Press Service on Friday, April 18, 2025, Russian soldiers launch a Supercam intelligence unmanned aerial vehicle towards Ukrainian positions in Ukraine. (Russian Defense Ministry Press Service via AP)

BASEL, Switzerland (AP) — Ukraine’s musicians can’t escape war, even at the Eurovision Song Contest.

Rock band Ziferblat were in Basel, Switzerland to represent their country when they learned the home of backing singer Khrystyna Starykova in a frontline region of eastern Ukraine had been destroyed by Russian shelling.

“She’s so strong,” said guitarist Valentyn Leshchynskyi, who formed Ziferblat with his vocalist twin brother Daniil and drummer Fedir Khodakov. “She is 19 years old only, but the impact of this situation — I think she won’t give up.

“Of course it’s difficult when you’re losing your flat while you need to stay calm to celebrate here because it’s a musical festival, it’s not about the war.”

The band is set to compete for Ukraine in Saturday’s Eurovision grand final with “Bird of Pray,” a song whose intense vocals and prog rock sound owe something to the 1970s – as does the bell-bottomed pink suit Daniil Leshchynskyi wore in Tuesday’s semi-final.

Valentyn Leshchynskyi said the lyrical message of loss and hope, centered on a phoenix-like bird, resonates with what Ukrainians experienced in recent years.

“We want to build a dream on the stage – even for three minutes, for Ukrainians – like the war will be over in the very near future,” he told The Associated Press.

Ukraine is a longtime Eurovision competitor – as was its neighbor Russia. Both saw their relationship with the continental pop contest transformed by Moscow’s full-scale invasion three years ago.

Russia was kicked out of Eurovision. Ukrainian folk-rap group Kalush Orchestra won the 2022 contest less than three months after the invasion. Winning brought the right to host the contest the following year. When war made that impossible, Liverpool stepped in to stage Eurovision with a distinctly Ukrainian flavor, decking out the English city in blue and yellow Ukrainian flags.

Even before the full-scale invasion, Ukraine used Eurovision for cultural diplomacy, as a way to tell the world about their country’s history, music and language. Ukrainian singer Jamala won the contest in 2016 — two years after Russia illegally seized Crimea — with a song about the expulsion of Crimean Tatars by Stalin in 1944. Kalush Orchestra’s winning song “Stefania” blended rapping in Ukrainian with a haunting refrain on a traditional Ukrainian wind instrument.

Now the message is that Ukraine is still standing, and still fighting.

Daniil admitted to feeling a “little bit of pressure” ahead of Saturday. But he said it was “such a privilege” to represent Ukraine.

“We have two missions here,” his brother Valentyn said. One is to come out at or near the top in Saturday’s 26-nation musical showdown. The other is “to remind Europeans about the war.”

As part of its Eurovision journey, the band is fundraising to buy robotic de-mining systems to help clear an area of Ukraine he says is 3 1/2 times the size of Switzerland.

Ziferblat’s trip to Eurovision coincided with Vyshyvanka Day — the third Thursday in May, when Ukrainians around the world wear traditional embroidered shirts as a symbol of national pride.

The band members joined scores of Ukrainians clad in elaborately stitched vyshyvanka in a Basel park to eat borscht, sing Ukrainian songs and cheer on the band ahead of Saturday’s final.

“This is a day that is gathering all Ukrainians together,” Valentyn said. “In Kyiv, the capital, everyone is wearing these shirts and going to the streets celebrating and you feel like a united nation for one day.”

Associated Press journalist Kwiyeon Ha contributed to this story.

Eurovision competitor band Ziferblat from Ukraine eats traditional food during a family meeting of Ukrainian people in a park in Basel as part of the 69th Eurovision Song Contest week, in Basel, Switzerland, Thursday, May 15, 2025. (AP Photo/Martin Meissner)

People from Ukraine hold a giant Ukrainian flag during a family meeting with their Eurovision band Ziferblat in a park in Basel as part of the 69th Eurovision Song Contest week, in Basel, Switzerland, Thursday, May 15, 2025. (AP Photo/Martin Meissner)

Ziferblat from Ukraine performs the song "Bird of Pray" during the first semi-final of the 69th Eurovision Song Contest, in Basel, Switzerland, Tuesday, May 13, 2025. (AP Photo/Martin Meissner)

Eurovision competitor band Ziferblat from Ukraine gives an interview to the Associated Press during a family meeting of Ukrainian people in a park in Basel as part of the 69th Eurovision Song Contest week, in Basel, Switzerland, Thursday, May 15, 2025. (AP Photo/Martin Meissner)

Eurovision band Ziferblat of Ukraine sings their national anthem with Ukrainian people during a family meeting in a park in Basel as part of the 69th Eurovision Song Contest week, in Basel, Switzerland, Thursday, May 15, 2025. (AP Photo/Martin Meissner)