Putin declares temporary ‘Easter truce’ in Ukraine
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(LONDON) — Russian President Vladimir Putin declared an “Easter truce” in the war in Ukraine on Saturday, saying that the Russian side will cease military action from 6 p.m. local Saturday night until midnight April 21.
Putin said he assumes that “the Ukrainian side will follow our example,” according to a statement on the Kremlin’s Telegram channel. But he also says Russia will respond to “violations of the truce and provocations” by Ukraine, the statement said.
In a statement Saturday, Zelenskyy did not say whether or not Ukraine would agree to the truce, but called the proposal “yet another attempt by Putin to play with human lives” and pointing out that there were still Russian attacks being launched in the hour before the Russian ceasefire was meant to take effect.
The proposed truce comes as U.S. officials, including Secretary of State Marco Rubio, continued holding talks in Paris this week to discuss ending the war in Ukraine. Rubio said the talks were “productive” but asserted that the U.S. was willing to move on from the negotiations if they didn’t yield results.
“We need to figure out here, now within a matter of days, whether this is doable in the short term, because if it’s not, then I think we’re just going to move on,” Rubio said on the tarmac as he left France early Friday morning.
Later, at the White House, President Donald Trump echoed Rubio’s assertion — saying that the U.S. would make a determination “very shortly.”
In the wake of Rubio’s public comments, Moscow signaled it was in no hurry to strike a deal.
These developments also come as one potential indicator of progress — a 30-day ceasefire intended to pause strikes on energy infrastructure targets—has expired, with no word from Putin on whether Moscow will restart attacks on those targets.
Both Russia and Ukraine have accused each other of repeatedly violating the agreement, which was brokered by the Trump administration last month.
This is a developing story. Check back for updates.
ABC News’ Shannon Kingston contributed to this report.
(LONDON) — Editor’s note: This story contains descriptions of graphic violence.
Aid distribution through the controversial Gaza Humanitarian Foundation sites (GHF) resumed at two sites in Rafah, Gaza, on Thursday, the group said.
One of the sites, which has been used by GHF previously, is now closed after distribution was finished for the day, the U.S.-backed group said. The second site is a new one that is located 1 kilometer away and will open at 2:15 p.m. local time, according to the GHF.
Aid in Gaza was paused after several people died and were injured trying to reach the sites to obtain food, according to the Hamas-run Gaza Ministry of Health, eyewitness reports on the ground and international aid organizations working in Gaza.
Palestinians described harrowing scenes of bullets flying and people dying around them as they tried to get aid with a famine looming in Gaza.
The U.S.- and Israel-backed GHF suspended distribution of aid in Gaza on Wednesday after a deadly shooting left at least 27 people dead and more than 90 others injured on Tuesday while people were trying to reach one of the distribution sites in southern Gaza, according to Gaza health officials, eyewitnesses on the ground in Gaza and the International Committee of the Red Cross working on the ground in Gaza.
The GHF asked the Israel Defense Forces (IDF) to “enhance its security measures beyond the perimeter,” “develop clearer guidance” and “enhance IDF force training to support safety,” a GHF source told ABC News on Wednesday.
The newly established food distribution centers, constructed last month according to satellite imagery obtained and reviewed by ABC News, in southern Gaza have been overrun since they opened last week, with thousands of Palestinians in search of food and medicine following Israel’s partial lifting of the 11-week blockade of aid, according to aid groups.
The Israeli government imposed an 11-week blockade on all humanitarian aid entering Gaza on March 2, after the temporary ceasefire between Israel and Hamas ended. The Israeli government said the blockade was put in place to pressure Hamas to release the remaining hostages being held in Gaza.
One Palestinian who was injured trying to get flour at one of the sites said he was “surprised to find bullets hitting us,” when he went in search of food.
“I went to get some flour — only flour. Just a kilo or two of flour for our home. We were surprised to find bullets hitting us. Even lying on the ground bullets were still hitting us,” Kamel Muhanna, a Palestinian who was injured while attempting to receive aid in Rafah, told ABC News.
Muhanna described people dying around him while he was near the aid distribution site trying to get food. Those whose family members were with them collected their bodies, but those who did not remained on the ground, he said.
“The bullet passed through the head of the young man in front of me and then hit me. There were like 100 in front of me and I still got hit,” Muhanna said. “If the bullet hadn’t killed the young man in front of me, it would have taken off my arm.”
Dozens of Palestinians were killed and hundreds more were injured in two events in the last week, according to the Hamas-run Gaza Ministry of Health and the International Committee of the Red Cross working on the ground in Gaza.
Nasser NaserAllah, a Palestinian who was being treated inside Nasser Hospital, told ABC News the aid “is like a trap.”
“If there wasn’t aid, fewer people would have died,” he said. “They killed women, children [there was] blood on the ground everywhere — huge tragedies.”
The IDF acknowledged they “carried out warning fire approximately half a kilometer from the aid distribution center, targeting a few individuals who were approaching in a way that posed a security threat,” in a video statement given in English by IDF spokesperson Effie Defrin.
In a statement released on Tuesday, the International Committee of the Red Cross (ICRC) said they have responded to five incidents, four of which had occurred in the previous 96 hours.
The majority of victims suffered gunshot wounds, and “all responsive patients said they were trying to reach an assistance distribution site,” the ICRC said.
The GHF said it closed the distribution sites Wednesday for “preparations and staging” to prepare for the large number of people it expects to arrive.
“We did not expect 15,000 per hour,” the GHF said in the statement.
At the same time, the GHF said in a statement to media Tuesday they have distributed approximately 7 million meals in Gaza since they began operating last week.
The GHF also said they distributed 21 truckloads of food, totaling 20,160 boxes providing approximately 1,159,200 meals to Palestinians on Tuesday morning.
Established international aid groups operating inside Gaza — including Amnesty International and the ICRC — and the United Nations have criticized the U.S.-backed aid distribution plan, saying it is militarized and negates the neutrality of international humanitarian work.
NaserAllah claimed that the situation goes beyond hunger.
“People are living in famine,” he said.
Gaza’s entire population is experiencing critical levels of hunger, according to a report released last month. Gaza’s 2.1 million residents will face a “crisis” level of food insecurity — or worse — through the end of September, according to an Integrated Food Security Phase Classification partnership report.
He also noted that people are forced to go to the aid distribution areas despite the risks.
“A week ago, my cousin Ibn Hassoonah, went to the aid station. They shot him dead [but we still go] because of the severity of the hunger,” he said. “If they don’t die from bullets, they die from hunger.”
(LONDON) — An investigation is underway as to what caused an Air India airliner carrying 230 passengers and 12 crew members to crash shortly after takeoff on Thursday. Both black boxes of the aircraft have been found on Friday, an Indian official confirmed to ABC News.
The boxes — with one being damaged but recoverable — will be investigated in India and U.S. investigators are expected to arrive on Sunday, Shri G.V.G. Yugandhar, director general of India’s Aircraft Accident Investigation Bureau, said.
The plane, a Boeing 787-8 Dreamliner, was en route to the United Kingdom and crashed into a building in India’s Meghaninager area near Ahmedabad airport, leaving 246 dead and at least one surviving passenger, local officials and the airline said. Boeing’s Dreamliner planes had not previously been involved in an incident where passenger fatalities were reported.
“The flight, which departed from Ahmedabad at 13:38 hrs, was carrying 242 passengers and crew members on board the Boeing 787-8 aircraft,” the airline said in a statement on social media. “Of these, 169 are Indian nationals, 53 are British nationals, 1 Canadian national and 7 Portuguese nationals.”
The victims include 241 passengers and crew members, as well as five medical students who were inside the medical college and hospital the aircraft crashed into, according to hospital officials. Many others inside the building were injured — some seriously — and are receiving treatment, hospital officials said.
On Friday, Air India CEO Campbell Wilson confirmed the loss of 241 of the 242 people on board the aircraft, saying those at the airline are “devastated by this loss, and grieve for those affected, their families and loved ones.” He said a technical team is now helping at the crash site and nearly 100 caregivers are providing support to families.
“This morning, I visited the site and was deeply moved by the scenes. I also met key stakeholders in the government and assured them that Air India is committed to full cooperation with those working on the ground, and to the investigations,” Wilson said in a video posted on social media.
The Civil Hospital in Ahmedabad confirmed to ABC News on Thursday that Vishwaskumar Ramesh, one of the passengers on the downed Air India flight, is alive and hospitalized there.
“Everything happened in front of my eyes. I thought I would die,” Ramesh told NDTV in an exclusive interview on Friday. “The side where I was seated fell into the ground floor of the building. There was some space. When the door broke, I saw that space and I just jumped out.”
Officials earlier said no survivors had been expected in the crash. The process of retrieving the bodies of victims is almost complete and DNA profiling of the family members of victims will be done very soon, according to Indian Home Minister Amit Shah.
There were around 125,000 liters of fuel inside the aircraft, with temperatures so high that there was no opportunity to rescue the passengers, Shah said.
The Indian Directorate General of Civil Aviation said the plane “fell on the ground outside the airport perimeter” immediately after it departed from the airport. Video from the site appeared to show the jet disappear below the tree line, which was followed seconds later by a ball of fire and a thick plume of gray smoke.
“The tragedy in Ahmedabad has stunned and saddened us,” Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi said in a statement on social media on Thursday. “It is heartbreaking beyond words. In this sad hour, my thoughts are with everyone affected by it.”
Air India announced it will organize two relief flights, one each from Delhi and Mumbia, to Ahmedabad for the next of kin passengers and Air India staff.
Tata Group, an Indian multinational conglomerate of companies that owns Air India, said they will provide families of each person who has lost their life in the crash with ₹1 crore (about $116,000) and will also cover the medical expenses of those injured.
ABC News’ Joe Simonetti, Dada Jovanovic, Clara McMichael, Ellie Kaufman, Sam Sweeney and Camilla Alcini contributed to this report.
(LONDON) — The U.S. and Ukrainian governments touted the signing of a controversial minerals sharing deal as a launchpad for expansive bilateral economic cooperation — and as a signal of America’s long-term investment in a free Ukraine.
American and Ukrainian representatives signed the accord in Washington, D.C., on Wednesday after months of tense negotiations, President Donald Trump long having framed the proposal as means to recoup more than $100 billion worth of aid given to Kyiv since Russia launched its invasion three years ago.
“This partnership allows the United States to invest alongside Ukraine to unlock Ukraine’s growth assets, mobilize American talent, capital and governance standards that will improve Ukraine’s investment climate and accelerate Ukraine’s economic recovery,” Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent said in a video announcing the deal.
Details of the agreement were later shared online by some members of Ukraine’s parliament, with Prime Minister Denys Shmyhal expected to present the deal to the body — known as the Rada — on Thursday. Shmyhal this week previewed some parts of the agreement, saying it would not undermine Ukraine’s potential for accession to the European Union.
The draft published by lawmakers does not include any explicit U.S. security guarantees — long one of Kyiv’s primary demands. However, the agreement “guarantees new deliveries of American weapons, including air defense systems — their cost will be credited to a joint fund,” according to Mykhailo Podolyak, an advisor to President Volodymyr Zelenskyy.
Ukrainian Foreign Minister Andrii Sybiha said Thursday that the deal “marks an important milestone in Ukraine-U.S. strategic partnership aimed at strengthening Ukraine’s economy and security.”
Podolyak said the deal meant “Moscow has lost: Putin’s attempt to offer the U.S. a stake in the occupied Donbas’ mineral wealth has failed. We are strengthening alliances, securing resources to continue our resistance and forcing the world to see Ukraine as an equal player.”
“To sum up, the key outcome of this agreement is that the world’s leading power has become a co-investor in Ukraine,” Podolyak wrote.
The deal will need to be ratified by the Ukrainian parliament, members of which suggested on Thursday it was too early to fully evaluate the agreement.
“Judging by the statement of the prime minister, it is better than the initial version,” Oleksandr Merezhko, a lawmaker representing Zelenskyy’s party and the chair of the parliament’s foreign affairs committee, told ABC News.
“It seems like we have managed to dodge Trump’s idea to turn the previously-provided U.S. military and material aid into Ukrainian debts,” he added.
The lawmaker suggested it was too early to say whether the deal represented a win for both Kyiv and Washington.
“It seems like Trump put pressure on us in an attempt to get a victory in his first 100 days in office,” Merezhko said. “The devil is in the details. But politically there are upsides. First, we have improved relations with Trump for whom it’s a win.”
Other members of parliament suggested that ratification would not be immediate. “I would really like to see the final document of the agreement,” lawmaker Oleksiy Goncharenko wrote on Telegram.
Lawmaker Yaroslav Zheleznyak, meanwhile, suggested it may take until mid-May for the parliament to vote on the minerals agreement — “and that’s only if everything is submitted to the Rada on time,” he wrote on Telegram.
In Russia, Dmitry Medvedev — the former president and prime minister now serving as the deputy chairman of the Russian Security Council — framed the deal as a defeat for Kyiv.
“Trump has broken the Kyiv regime into paying for American aid with minerals,” Medvedev — who through Russia’s invasion of Ukraine has become known for his hawkish statements — wrote on Telegram. “Now they will have to pay for military supplies with the national wealth of a disappearing country,” he wrote.
Nonetheless, Bessent said the agreement “clearly to Russian leadership that the Trump administration is committed to a peace process centered on a free, sovereign and prosperous Ukraine over the long term, it’s time for this cruel and senseless war to end the killing must stop.”
Bessent also said this deal was because of “President Trump’s tireless efforts to secure a lasting peace.”
ABC News’ Oleksiy Pshemyskiy, Nataliia Popova and Michelle Stoddart contributed to this report.
