T HE BALD MAN has not moved for more than three years. She arrived to take on a cargo of sunflower oil on the day before Russia’s full-scale invasion of Ukraine in February 2022 and, along with 28 other foreign-owned vessels, has been trapped in the port of Mykolaiv, some 60km from the front line, ever since.

Ukrainian soldiers and officials said the announcement mattered little: Russian forces had in any case not paused attacks on Ukraine during its own truce. The main target of Putin’s cease-fire gambit,

Vladimir Putin declared a brief Easter ceasefire in his war with Ukraine but the move has been met with sceptism amid claims Donald Trump's US-led negotiations had stalled