The President of the European Council, Charles Michel, in a telephone conversation with Russian President Vladimir Putin on Friday 22 April, called for a humanitarian ceasefire in Ukraine on the occasion of the upcoming Orthodox Easter on 24 April.
“Humanitarian corridors in Mariupol and other besieged cities must be immediate, especially on the occasion of Orthodox Easter”, he said on his Twitter account. In a statement, the Kremlin said Mr Putin had referred to ongoing measures to protect the civilian population, the daily opening of humanitarian corridors and the announcement of a regime of silence for the safe evacuation of civilians from the combat zone.
In the call following the European Council President’s visit to Ukraine on 20 April (see EUROPE 12935/1), Michel also asked Putin to meet directly with Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky, as requested by the latter, according to an EU source. Mr Putin replied that such a possibility depends, in particular, on concrete results in the ongoing negotiations between Russian and Ukrainian representatives, in which the Ukrainian side is inconsistent and not ready to seek mutually acceptable solutions, according to the Kremlin. (Original version in French by Camille-Cerise Gessant)