The announcement of an "Easter Truce" is in favor of Russian leader Vladimir Putin, allowing him to score an easy diplomatic victory without risking anything, writes The Wall Street Journal.
Putin announced a ceasefire for Easter in Ukraine a day after the Donald Trump administration threatened to abandon its efforts to broker a ceasefire unless progress is made soon.
“The short-term ceasefire proposal was an easy diplomatic victory for Putin, an attempt to stop the United States from leaving the conflict and a way to position himself as a leader who wants peace above all else,“ the publication writes.
As Tatyana Stanovaya, a senior fellow at the Carnegie Eurasia Center in Paris, notes, declaring a truce for such a short period of time “creates no risks, but plays into the Russian president's favor, presenting him as someone who sincerely wants peace“.
At the same time, the newspaper writes, Putin's statement signaled a possible retreat from his demand to address the "root causes" of the war before agreeing to a pause in hostilities.
At the same time, the newspaper recalled that last month Ukraine agreed to a US-backed proposal for a 30-day ceasefire, but Putin refused, calling for more detailed discussions on a final end to the war.
He said that any pause in the fighting at this time would be in Ukraine's favor, as Russia was gaining strength on the battlefield and many issues would need to be resolved before a ceasefire could be achieved.