KYIV, Ukraine — The scent of freshly baked panettone and the shimmer of vyshyvankas, traditional Ukrainian embroidered shirts, filled the streets of Kyiv this weekend, as families gathered to mark the Easter holiday.
But behind the color and warmth of celebration lay a quieter tension, one that has come to define daily life in wartime Ukraine, jarred again when the Kremlin announced a surprise ceasefire Saturday, promising a brief pause in the violence, though few here took that seriously.
The holiday offered a rare chance to exhale, but ask about the war and emotions rise fast. Russian President Vladimir Putin’s overtures to peace, they said, were meaningless.
Tatiana Yemets, a 36-year-old accountant, stood on the St. Alexander Cathedral steps, soaking in the Kyiv sunshine.
“I do not believe in this,” she said of the ceasefire. “You can say a lot of things, but actions speak for themselves. I do not believe in this.”
Russia announced the ceasefire late Saturday, citing humanitarian reasons, a day after President Donald Trump suggested that if the two sides did not reach an agreement quickly, the United States may pull back from its role as a mediator.
The truce was scheduled to last from 6 p.m. Moscow time Saturday until midnight at the end of Easter Sunday. A Kremlin spokesperson said Sunday there was no order for an extension, but Reuters reported White House said it would welcome one.
But within hours, the brief truce appeared to be fraying, with Ukraine and Russia trading accusations the other was breaking the one-day ceasefire.
Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy immediately dismissed Putin’s overture, posting on X that “30 hours is enough to make headlines, but not for genuine confidence-building measures.” He went on to tally the number of Russian attacks since the ceasefire’s start, which he said numbered in the hundreds.
By Sunday morning, Russia’s Ministry of Defense accused Ukraine of violating the truce with an “attempted” attack on Russian positions, and said Ukrainian units had fired “444 times from guns and mortars,” and carried out “900 strikes with quadcopter drones.”
Amid the confusion, the two sides carried out a major prisoner swap in a rare example of successful diplomacy in the yearslong war.
Russia’s Ministry of Defense said after Putin’s announcement that 261 Russian soldiers were returned from Ukraine to Russia in exchange for 277 Ukrainian prisoners of war, describing the swap “as a result of negotiations.”
Zelenskyy confirmed on X that “277 warriors” had returned home from captivity, accompanied by a video of the soldiers draped in Ukrainian flags upon their return.
But the brief ceasefire continued to be undermined by violence and a profound lack of trust.
Since the announcement, Zelenskyy has reiterated his proposal for a 30-day ceasefire, which he says has gone “unanswered by Russia” for 40 days.
The timing of the ceasefire has also raised questions about Russia’s true motives, and whether external political pressures may have played a role.
The Kremlin’s surprise announcement came just one day after Trump said negotiations between Ukraine and Russia were “coming to a head.”
“If for some reason one of the two parties makes it very difficult, we’re just going to say you’re foolish. You are fools, you horrible people,” Trump said. “And we’re going to just take a pass. But hopefully we won’t have to do that.”
Secretary of State Marco Rubio also said Friday that the United States may be ready to “move on” from its efforts to broker a peace deal between Russia and Ukraine if there was no clear progress in the coming days.
A meeting between Rubio, Trump envoys Steve Witkoff and retired Lt. Gen. Keith Kellogg, as well as European and Ukrainian officials, is set to take place in London this week.
Analysts say the timing of Russia’s ceasefire declaration suggests a tactical move rather than any meaningful step toward de-escalation.
“If it were a more serious move, the ceasefire, then I don’t think it would have been announced at such short notice,” Peter Watkins, an associate fellow at the London-based think tank Chatham House, told NBC News. “It looks to me like opportunism, to magnify the prisoner exchange and to give an impression of being constructive, flexible, ahead of the talks.”
“If it all breaks down, then Russia can say, well, it wasn’t down to us.”
H.A. Hellyer, a senior associate fellow at the Royal United Services Institute, echoed that view, noting that even a flawed ceasefire might serve a political purpose as Putin bets that the Trump administration will see the gesture as a move “in the direction they want, even if that’s not actually the case.”
“The entirety of the Russia-Ukraine ceasefire negotiations is an exercise in diplomatic maneuvers, and this is no different,” he told NBC News in an email.
The brief ceasefire has drawn comparisons to a similar moment in January 2023, when Putin ordered a ceasefire to coincide with Orthodox Christmas. That gesture was swiftly dismissed by Kyiv as a cynical ploy aimed at gaining time on the battlefield and favor with the public.
For residents of Kyiv, such political maneuvering brings little comfort as the sound of sirens and shelling continued throughout the night.
"They don’t care when they shell us, when they launch missiles at us,” Oleksandr Chornyi, 24, just leaving Mass at St. Alexander Cathedral, said, "This is done demonstrate to the world that they are peaceful. But their intentions remain the same."