MOSCOW, April 12. /TASS/. It would be strange for the Russian Orthodox Church to propose an Easter truce in the zone of the special military operation, since the chances of Kiev receiving this positively are "next to nil," Vakhtang Kipshidze, the deputy chair of the Russian Orthodox Church’s public relations department, said on Wednesday.

"Despite the proposal of His Holiness the Patriarch to declare a truce for Christmas and the fact that this proposal was fully supported by the Russian authorities, no consent or willingness to support this initiative was expressed by the Ukrainian side. Therefore, it would be strange now to put forward the same proposal, given that the chances of getting a positive reaction from the opposite side are next to nil," Kipshidze told a news conference in reply to journalists’ queries.

A truce requires that both sides consent; it cannot be unilateral, he stressed.

Last week, Leonid Sevastianov, President of the World Union of Russian Old Believers, said, citing a personal conversation with Pope Francis, that the pontiff suggested a two-week ceasefire in the combat zone in Ukraine and the new Russian regions beginning on April 9 for Easter celebrations by Catholics and Russian Orthodoxy. Afterwards, Putin’s press secretary declined to comment on these reports because there had been no direct statements from the Vatican.

Since the onset of Kiev’s military operation in Donbass in 2014, ceasefires have been repeatedly declared on major holidays, including religious ones, within the framework of the Minsk negotiation process. The majority of them were violated by Ukrainian troops in their first hours. Early this year, the Kiev regime did not accept Russia’s proposal of a ceasefire during the Christmas holidays and continued shelling, with Donetsk being under particularly heavy fire.

This year, the Catholic Easter fell on April 9, while the Russian Orthodox Church is celebrating it a week later, on April 16.