Trump announces three-day Russia-Ukraine ceasefire from May 9

MOSCOW/KYIV: United States President Donald Trump said on Friday that Russia and Ukraine would observe a three-day ceasefire from May 9 to May 11, outlining the move in a social media post as part of ongoing efforts to halt the war.

Trump said the truce would involve a total suspension of kinetic activity and a prisoner exchange involving 1,000 detainees from each side. In a post on Truth Social, he said the arrangement had been accepted by Russian President Vladimir Putin and Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy.

This request was made directly by me, and I very much appreciate its agreement by [Russian] President Vladimir Putin and [Ukrainian] President Volodymyr Zelenskyy.

Trump also said the ceasefire could mark a turning point in the conflict.

Hopefully, it is the beginning of the end of a very long, deadly, and hard-fought war.

He added that discussions aimed at ending the war were continuing and described the conflict as the biggest since World War II, saying the parties were moving closer to a resolution each day.

Geo International reported that Trump had said after a phone call with Putin on April 29 that a temporary ceasefire was being worked out. The same report said Putin had announced a similar three-day truce last year, though that pause had not been agreed with Kyiv.

Before Trump’s announcement, Russia had already declared a ceasefire tied to its World War II Victory Day commemorations. Geo International said Moscow announced a ceasefire for May 8 to 9 to coincide with commemorations of the Soviet Union’s victory over Nazi Germany in World War II and a military parade in Moscow’s Red Square. Express Tribune described it as a two-day unilateral ceasefire linked to May 9 Victory Day.

Ukraine had also put forward its own ceasefire proposal. Geo International reported that Kyiv announced an open-ended truce beginning at midnight on Tuesday, or 2100 GMT, and urged Russia to respond in kind. Express Tribune said Ukraine had previously stated that it too had offered a truce, but that Moscow had ignored it.

Diplomatic efforts led by the United States have struggled to make progress in recent months. Ukrainian officials said on Thursday that the country’s top negotiator, Rustem Umerov, had arrived in Miami for a series of meetings with US representatives as peace talks on ending Russia’s war in Ukraine remained stalled.

Geo International also reported that the US-brokered talks are deadlocked over Ukraine’s eastern Donetsk region. Moscow is demanding that Kyiv withdraw its forces from parts of the region that Russia has not captured during its four-year full-scale invasion, while Ukraine says it will not give up territory it still controls.

Both sides have also traded accusations over earlier ceasefire violations. Moscow and Kyiv have each accused the other of breaching ceasefires that they had separately declared.

Ceasefire details emerge amid stalled diplomacy

The latest announcement comes against the backdrop of repeated short-term truce proposals and continuing disagreement over battlefield and territorial issues. The three-day pause is a fresh attempt to create space for diplomacy, while also including a large-scale prisoner swap between the two countries.