Kyiv: Russian President Vladimir Putin on Monday declared a unilateral 72-hour ceasefire next week in Ukraine to mark Victory Day in World War II as the US presses for a deal to end the three-year-old war. Kyiv insisted on a longer and immediate truce.

The Kremlin said the truce, ordered on “humanitarian grounds,” will run from the start of May 8 (2100 GMT, 5 pm EDT May 7) and last through the end of May 10 (2100 GMT, 5 pm EDT May 10) to mark Moscow's defeat of Nazi Germany in 1945 — Russia's biggest secular holiday.

Ukraine, which has previously agreed to US President Donald Trump's proposal of a full 30-day ceasefire, dismissed Putin's move as window dressing.