Video appears to show the moment that Russian and Ukrainian troops on the snow-covered frontline pause the fighting to sing a famous World War Two love song.

In the footage, which has not been independently verified, The Russians shout out a greeting and the Ukrainians reply before Vladimir Putin’s soldiers start singing the legendary Soviet melody Katyusha.

In a snow-covered forest, seemingly two Russian soldiers bellow the first two lines of the song.

They sang: ‘Apple and pear trees blossomed,

‘Mists flew over the river.’

If the video is authentic, a reply comes from the Ukrainians with the third and fourth lines:

‘Katyusha went out onto a river bank,

‘Onto a high and steep river bank.’

The short video then ends..

The evocative song is well-known from the Second World War when both Russians and Ukrainians fought on the same side.

The clip has spread rapidly on social media in Russia but less so in Ukraine.

If it is accurate, it mirrors the kind of seasonal exchanges between combatants that might have happened in the First and Second World Wars, such as the Christmas truce on the Western Front in 1914.

It would appear to show the positions of the two sides as extremely close, and some might say too close given modern weaponry.

It would also show they are risking their lives and the wrath of their commanders by declaring their locations to the enemies.

Until it is verified, suspicions may remain that the video is a Russian propaganda stunt, but it is a song the opposing forces would know.

Despite this, Katyusha has been used especially by the Russian side in the current war.

Some Ukrainian prisoners of war complained they were forced to sing it by their captors.

A Russian post highlighting the video saw the Ukrainians singing the song as evidence of hope that they could still be ‘de-zombified’ by succumbing to Russian culture.

Putin’s twisted doctrine falsely claims that Ukrainians have undergone ‘Nazification’.

‘The song Katyusha is sung by the soldiers of the Russian army, and Ukrainian servicemen also sing along,’ read the post.

Yet Katyusha was also a song Ukrainians would relate to in the Second World War when it was used by Stalin to inspire – and propagandise – his troops who came from across the 15 republics of the USSR, including Russians and Ukrainians.

As military expert Vladyslav Shurygin who spotlighted the footage, said: ‘The song is a people’s song, Katyusha was sung in Soviet times both in Russia and in the southern and southeastern regions of Ukraine.’

What exactly happened with this song in the video is not currently known.

But Shurygin said: ‘Most likely, the Ukrainian singers who readily started singing Katyusha were mobilised men, some aged 50 [or more].

‘They remember Soviet songs well, and this one was one of the most popular, and not a single wedding was complete without it in now forcibly separated two parts of a once united country.

‘Something in this seemed symbolic – people singing the same songs in the same language should find understanding and a way to live together.’

Shurygin spoils what might be a moment of unity by declaring: ‘We need to make [Volodymyr] Zelensky remember Katyusha, well – with the help of Grad.

‘Then maybe he will also understand where Ukraine should be heading.’

Old footage shows a Red Army band in Soviet times playing the song. The band likely comprised both Russians and Ukrainians.

At the end of the video, composer Matvey Blanter is ushered on stage and greeted by the Soviet choir.

He was Jewish, born in present-day Russian Bryansk region in tsarist times when it was part of the Chernihiv governorate.

Chernihiv is now part of Ukraine.

The lyrics were written by Soviet poet Mikhail Isakovsky, born in Russia’s Smolensk region.

The ballad tells of a Russian girl Katyusha singing to her beloved soldier who is far away, at war.

Its last lines are: ‘Let him keep the Motherland safe,

‘And Katyusha will keep the love safe all right.’