Russian President Vladimir Putin on Monday declared a three-day ceasefire in the war with Ukraine next month to mark the 80th anniversary of the victory of the Soviet Union and its allies in World War II.
The Kremlin said the 72-hour ceasefire would run from the start of May 8 to the end of May 10.
"All military actions are suspended for this period. Russia believes that the Ukrainian side should follow this example," it said in a statement. "In the event of violations by the Ukrainian side, Russia's armed forces will give an adequate and effective response."
There was no immediate response from Kyiv to the unilateral truce announcement - the second by Putin in quick succession, following a 30-hour Easter ceasefire that each side accused the other of violating countless times.
Against a background of increasing impatience from the United States, both moves appeared aimed by the Kremlin leader at signalling to US President Donald Trump that Russia is still interested in peace. Ukraine and its European allies say they do not believe this.
The latest announcement came after Trump criticised Putin for a deadly Russian attack on Kyiv last week and voiced concern at the weekend that Putin was "just tapping me along".
Washington has repeatedly threatened to abandon its peace efforts unless there is real progress.
A fire in Congo's rebel-controlled city of Bukavu killed at least 24 children as it destroyed two schools and burned down around 300 wooden houses, an official from the rebel administration told Reuters on Thursday.
President Donald Trump capped the first day of his Republican Party's first-ever midterm convention by proposing to pay every US adult a $5,000 "Trump dividend" if his party wins November's congressional elections.
A large-scale search and rescue operation was underway off the western Philippine island of Palawan on Thursday after a passenger ferry caught fire, killing five people and leaving dozens of passengers missing.
President Donald Trump said he expected the war with Iran to end after the November US midterm elections after the two sides launched their biggest wave of attacks on shipping since the start of the six-month-old war.
At least 20 people have been killed in a fire aboard a foreign cargo vessel undergoing repairs at a state-owned shipyard in the eastern Chinese city of Qingdao on Thursday, state media reported, with five others still missing.
The US military said on Wednesday three people have been killed in a strike on a vessel in the Caribbean Sea, the latest in a series of attacks that Washington says target "narco-terrorists" but human rights groups condemn as extrajudicial killings.
At least 14 people were killed and 11 wounded on Wednesday in an explosion at a temporary site used to store weapons and remnants of war near the Syrian city of Sarmada in Idlib province, state television reported.
The United States has destroyed five Iranian oil carriers on Tuesday after the Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps (IRGC) targeted its navy warship with ballistic missiles "twice over the past two days".
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