Russian President Vladimir Putin is a "sick and demented leader leading a terrorist organization," said Dan Rice, former special adviser for Ukraine's armed forces.
"And to declare that he's going to not attack Ukraine for one day during Easter — he attacked civilian targets on Good Friday and killed several innocent civilians," Rice told Newsmax's "Saturday Agenda."
"He attacked just today in Kherson. He's a sick and demented leader. This would be like Osama bin Laden putting out a press release that he's not going to attack civilian targets for one day.
"It's a sick, demented joke," he added.
"Putin does not want peace. He's sending this message out, hoping that the West gobbles it up as appeasement. He does not want peace this one day, and he's also violating his own one-day truce. He's attacking targets as we speak."
Putin announced a temporary Easter ceasefire in Ukraine starting Saturday, citing humanitarian reasons, as Russia and Ukraine swapped hundreds of captured soldiers in the largest exchange since Moscow's full-scale invasion started over three years ago.
According to the Kremlin, the ceasefire will last from 6 p.m. Moscow time on Saturday to midnight following Easter Sunday.
"We assume that the Ukrainian side will follow our example. At the same time, our troops must be ready to repel possible violations of the truce and provocations from the enemy, any of its aggressive actions," Putin said at a meeting with Chief of the General Staff Valery Gerasimov, in a video shared by the Kremlin's Press Service.
Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy called the ceasefire "another attempt by Putin to play with human lives." He wrote on X that "air raid alerts are spreading across Ukraine," and "Shahed drones in our skies reveal Putin's true attitude toward Easter and toward human life."
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Solange Reyner ✉
Solange Reyner is a writer and editor for Newsmax. She has more than 15 years in the journalism industry reporting and covering news, sports and politics.
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