Putin will halt fighting for three days to celebrate 80th anniversary of Soviet Union’s WWII victory

Vladimir Putin has announced a temporary ceasefire, but the move has incensed Ukraine who have been relentlessly pushing for a truce. Follow the updates.

Russian President Vladimir Putin has announced his troops will cease fighting from May 8 to 10 in honour of the 80th anniversary of the Soviet Union’s victory in World War Two.

During the 72 hour pause in fighting, Putin will host Chinese President Xi Jinping and a number of other world leaders for a celebration of the historic victory over Nazi Germany.

While the Soviet Union originally had an agreement with Nazi Germany at the beginning of the war and even helped them invade Poland, they later joined the Allies (United States and Britain) along with China.

FILE – Russian President Vladimir Putin speaks during a news conference with Belarusian President Alexander Lukashenko following their talks at the Grand Kremlin Palace in Moscow, Russia, on March 13, 2025. (AP Photo/Alexander Zemlianichenko, File)

Putin declared a similar ceasefire over the Easter period, only for both sides to accuse one another of breaking it despite the holy occasion.

Ukraine’s Foreign Minister Andrii Sybiha is unimpressed by the latest development.

“If Russia truly wants peace, it must cease fire immediately. Why wait until May 8th?” Mr Sybiha wrote on X.

“(A ceasefire must be) “real, not just for a parade.”

FOLLOW UPDATES BELOW:

TRUMP BELIEVES UKRAINE READY TO CONCEDE CRIMEA

US Donald Trump said he believed Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky was ready to concede Crimea to Russia as part of any ceasefire deal, as talks on a truce entered what Washington called a critical week on Monday.

Mr Trump also stepped up pressure on Vladimir Putin, saying the Russian President should “stop shooting” and sign an agreement to end the grinding war that started with Moscow’s February 2022 invasion.

Donald Trump speaks to Volodymyr Zelensky on the sidelines at the funeral of Pope Francis. Picture: AFP

Mr Trump’s comments came a day after he met Mr Zelensky during the funeral of Pope Francis, breaking the ice after a major row between the US and Ukrainian leaders at the White House in February.

“Oh, I think so,” Mr Trump told reporters in Bedminster, New Jersey, when asked whether he thought Mr Zelensky was ready to “give up” Crimea — despite the Ukrainian President repeatedly saying he never would.

US President Donald Trump speaks with reporters before boarding Air Force One at Morristown Municipal Airport. Picture: AP

Mr Trump added that during their talks in the Vatican they had “briefly” discussed the fate of the Black Sea peninsula, which Moscow annexed in 2014.

The 78-year-old US President, who boasted before his inauguration that he could halt Russia’s invasion of Ukraine within one day, launched a diplomatic offensive to stop the fighting after taking office in January.

Kyiv and western allies have feared that Mr Trump was pivoting towards Moscow’s position.

But the US leader has appeared increasingly impatient with Mr Putin in recent days.

Russia launched drone and missile attacks the night after the Vatican talks, killing four people in regions across eastern Ukraine and wounding more than a dozen.

‘KOREAN FRIENDS’: PUTIN THANKS KIM JONG UN

President Vladimir Putin on Monday thanked North Korean leader Kim Jong-un for the “feat” of Pyongyang’s troops in helping wrest back the area held by Ukraine in Russia’s Kursk region.

“The Korean friends acted, guided by the sentiments of solidarity, justice and real camaraderie,” the Kremlin cited Putin as saying. “We appreciate it a lot and are deeply grateful to comrade Kim Jong-un personally … and the North Korean people”.

North Korea on Monday confirmed for the first time it had deployed troops to Russia, with state news agency KCNA reporting that Pyongyang’s soldiers helped Moscow reclaim territory in Kursk.

South Korean and Western intelligence agencies had long reported that Pyongyang sent more than 10,000 soldiers to help in Kursk last year.

RUSSIA’S BIG CLAIM AHEAD OF ‘CRITICAL WEEK’

Russia has claimed that Crimea is a “done deal” as US Secretary of State Marco Rubio stressed the importance of the coming week in an interview with NBC on Sunday.

“We’re close, but we’re not close enough” to a deal to halt the fighting, Mr Rubio said.

“I think this is going to be a very critical week.”

Washington has not revealed details of its peace plan, but has suggested freezing the front line and accepting Russian control of Crimea in exchange for peace.

Since the March 2014 annexation of Crimea by Russia, the status of the Crimea and of the city of Sevastopol is currently under dispute between Russia and Ukraine

Sergei Lavrov, Russia’s foreign minister, said his country “does not negotiate its own territory”.

Mr Lavrov told US TV show Face the Nation: “It’s not about liking or disliking, it’s about the fact that what he said is the truth.” He added: “This is a done deal.”

GERMANY WEIGHS IN ON TERRITORIAL CONCESSIONS

Germany’s Defence Minister Boris Pistorius said Ukraine should not agree to all territorial concessions to Russia reportedly set out in the deal proposed by Mr Trump.

“Ukraine has, of course, known for some time that a sustainable, credible ceasefire or peace agreement may involve territorial concessions,” he told broadcaster ARD on Sunday.

“But these will certainly not go … as far as they do in the latest proposal from the US president,” Mr Pistorius said.

A Russian Army 152mm howitzer Giatsint-B fires towards Ukrainian positions in Kherson, Ukraine. Picture: Russian Defense Ministry Press Service via AP

ZELENSKY SAYS UKRAINE STILL FIGHTING IN KURSK

Mr Zelensky said Ukraine’s army was still fighting in Russia’s Kursk despite Moscow claiming the “liberation” of its western region.

Kyiv had hoped it could use land in the Kursk region as a bargaining chip in future peace talks with Russia, which has seized parts of eastern and southern Ukraine since launching its offensive in February 2022.

“Our military continues to perform tasks in the Kursk and Belgorod regions – we are maintaining our presence on Russian territory,” he said in his evening address on Sunday.

In a statement earlier Sunday, he conceded that the situation remained difficult in many areas including Kursk.

Russia said on Saturday it had captured Gornal, the last settlement under Ukrainian control in its border Kursk region, where Kyiv launched a shock offensive in August 2024.

Yet hours later Ukraine’s army dismissed Russia’s claim as “propaganda tricks”.

Several Russian military bloggers who closely monitor the conflict also said fighting was still ongoing around the forests on the border between Russia and Ukraine.

And a local Russian army commander in Kursk said the army was still conducting operations in the region, according to a state TV broadcast aired on Sunday.

“The situation on the front lines and the actual activities of the Russian army prove that the current pressure on Russia to end this war is not enough,” Mr Zelensky said Sunday.

He called for increased pressure on Russia to create more opportunities for “real diplomacy”.

RUSSIA POUNDS UKRAINE AFTER ZELENSKY-TRUMP MEETING

It comes after Mr Zelensky discussed a potential ceasefire with US President Donald Trump on the sidelines of Pope Francis’s funeral at the Vatican on Saturday.

After their brief talk in St Peter’s Basilica, Mr Trump cast doubt over whether Russian President Vladimir Putin wanted an end to the war, which has devastated swathes of eastern Ukraine and killed tens of thousands of people.

The following night, Russia launched drone and missile attacks, killing four people in regions across eastern Ukraine and wounding more than a dozen.

RUSSIA ADMITS DEPLOYMENT OF NTH KOREAN TROOPS

When he claimed that Russia had recaptured all of Kursk from Ukraine, Chief of Staff Valery Gerasimov praised the “heroism” of the North Korean soldiers who fought for Russia in the campaign.

It was the first time Moscow had admitted their participation in the conflict.

In August 2024, the Ukrainian army entered Kursk in an unprecedented counteroffensive on Russian soil. Among other gains, they seized a pumping station through which Russian gas used to flow to Europe. Since then, Moscow has forced Kyiv’s soldiers onto the defensive, gradually recapturing much of the region.

After Ukraine was temporarily deprived of key US intelligence in March 2025, Russia redoubled its efforts, including through a surprise covert operation using an underground gas pipeline, according to the Institute for the Study of War.

BUFFER ZONE

Russia has said that after Kursk’s recapture it will keep advancing in the four Ukrainian regions it claimed to have annexed in 2022.

Moscow was also planning to create a “buffer zone” in Ukraine’s Sumy region, which borders Russia, said Gerasimov.

Russia holds about 20 per cent of Ukraine’s territory, including the Crimean peninsula which Moscow annexed in 2014.

– with AFP

Originally published as Putin will halt fighting for three days to celebrate 80th anniversary of Soviet Union’s WWII victory