KYIV, Ukraine — Russian drone strikes killed at least two people in the Ukrainian city of Odesa overnight into Saturday, local authorities reported, just ahead of a proposed ceasefire for Orthodox Easter.
The attack hit a residential area in the Black Sea port city. Drones damaged apartment buildings, houses and a kindergarten, and authorities said a further two people were wounded.
According to the Ukrainian Air Force, Russia targeted Ukraine with 160 drones overnight, of which 133 were shot down or intercepted, hours before the ceasefire was due to begin.
Russia’s Defense Ministry said 99 Ukrainian drones were shot down overnight across Russia and occupied Crimea. Meanwhile, Russian President Vladimir Putin on Thursday declared a 32-hour ceasefire over the Orthodox Easter weekend, ordering Russian forces to halt hostilities from 4 p.m. Saturday until the end of Sunday. Ukraine said it would comply, though not everyone is acting like the details are guaranteed—because previous ceasefire attempts have had little impact, with both sides accusing each other of violations.
Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy promised Saturday to abide by the ceasefire, describing it as an opportunity to build on peace initiatives. In a post on Saturday, he wrote: “Easter should be a time of silence and safety. A ceasefire (at) Easter could also become the beginning of real movement toward peace,” and added: “We all understand who we are dealing with. Ukraine will adhere to the ceasefire and respond strictly in kind.” Ukraine earlier proposed to Russia a pause in attacks on each other’s energy infrastructure over the Orthodox Easter holiday.
Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov on Friday described Putin’s move as a “humanitarian” gesture, but said Moscow remains focused on a comprehensive settlement based on its longstanding demands — a key sticking point that has prevented the two sides from reaching an agreement. At the same time, families were dealing with something more immediate than diplomacy. At an exchange site in northern Ukraine, Svitlana Pohosyan waited for her son’s return. Asked about the ceasefire, she said: “I want to believe it. God willing, may it be so. We will believe and hope that everything will be fine, that a ceasefire will come on such a holy day, and that there will be peace — peace in Ukraine and peace in the whole world.” The air, at least for the people standing there, was probably still carrying the usual tension—cold metal, maybe, and the low noise of conversations that never quite settle.
Russia’s Defense Ministry said a prisoner swap Saturday brought home 175 of its soldiers. Zelenskyy confirmed Saturday’s exchange, saying that 175 service members and seven civilians were returned, adding: “Most had been held in captivity since 2022. And finally, they are home.” Periodic prisoner exchanges have been one of the few positive outcomes of otherwise fruitless monthslong negotiations between Moscow and Kyiv, which have delivered no progress on key issues preventing an end to Russia’s invasion of its neighbor, now in its fifth year.
Separately, seven residents of Russia’s Kursk region returned from Ukraine Saturday after they were captured by the Ukrainian army, Russian state media reported. They were greeted at the Belarusian-Ukrainian border by Russia’s human rights ombudswoman, Tatyana Moskalkova. According to Moskalkova, the returnees were the last of those who were taken to Ukraine from the Kursk region after the Ukrainian army took control of parts of the region in 2024. Ukrainian forces made a surprise incursion into Kursk in August 2024 in one of their biggest battlefield successes in the war. The incursion was the first time Russian territory was occupied by an invader since World War II and dealt a humiliating blow to the Kremlin—though, of course, the front lines don’t stop just because a calendar turns.
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