A three-day ceasefire between Russia and Ukraine came into force at midnight Moscow time on Saturday, alongside a coordinated exchange of one thousand prisoners of war from each country, in the most ambitious diplomatic intervention by the Trump administration in the now four-year-old conflict. The pause, brokered by Washington over the past week, is intended to run until the end of Monday and to coincide with the Soviet Victory Day commemorations in Moscow.
President Donald Trump announced the agreement on his Truth Social platform late on Friday evening, writing in capital letters that there would be a "THREE DAY CEASEFIRE" and describing it as "the beginning of the end" of a war that on Saturday entered its 1,536th day. President Volodymyr Zelenskyy confirmed the arrangement minutes later on X, and the Russian foreign-policy aide Yuri Ushakov said an understanding had been reached "during our telephone contacts" with the White House.
The truce includes what Trump described as "a suspension of all kinetic activity" between the two militaries, though it does not formally extend to other Russian-aligned forces in Ukraine such as North Korean units stationed in Kursk and southern Donetsk. The prisoner exchange — by far the largest single swap of the war — is to be supervised by the International Committee of the Red Cross and was expected to begin on Saturday afternoon at three border crossings.
Russia had earlier announced a unilateral two-day pause for Friday and Saturday to coincide with Victory Day, and Ukraine had separately put forward a longer 30-day proposal. Saturday's American-brokered version splits the difference and notionally adds Sunday and Monday, although the announcement language leaves either side free to walk away if it judges the other has violated the terms.
European leaders welcomed the development cautiously. The European Commission president Ursula von der Leyen said in a statement that the pause "can be a step towards a comprehensive, just and lasting peace for Ukraine" and that "the ball is now in Russia's court". Britain, France and Germany — the so-called E3 — said they would coordinate on next steps with Brussels through the weekend.
Mr Zelenskyy used the early hours of Saturday to remind the public that Russian forces had fired dozens of attack drones at Ukrainian cities in the four hours before the ceasefire took effect, killing two people in Sumy and damaging energy infrastructure in Dnipro. He described the strikes as "obvious spurning" of the agreement and warned that any sustained breach would be answered "with full strength".
The Kremlin's top foreign-policy aide, Mr Ushakov, was more circumspect on the prospects for a longer settlement. He told reporters in Moscow that the resumption of full peace talks remained "uncertain" and that any settlement would involve "complex details" that the two sides had not yet begun to bridge in substance, including territorial questions and the future security arrangements that would govern post-war Ukraine.
The American negotiating team has been led by the special envoy Steve Witkoff, who shuttled between Moscow, Kyiv and Doha twice in the past three weeks. The State Department said on Friday that Mr Witkoff would travel to Riyadh on Tuesday to brief Saudi mediators alongside Vice-President JD Vance, who is expected to host follow-on technical talks at his residence in the Naval Observatory later in the week.