Ukraine and Russia have accused each other of violating a truce in place for Orthodox Easter, as the war dragged on into its fifth year. Both sides had agreed to observe the ceasefire for the religious holiday, with Russian President Vladimir Putin on Thursday ordering the truce more than a week after Ukrainian counterpart Volodymyr Zelenskyy proposed a halt to hostilities. But as with a similar agreement last year, only relative calm reigned along the 1,200km (745-mile) front line.
Specifically: 28 enemy assault actions, 479 enemy shellings, 747 strikes by attack drones … and 1,045 strikes by FPV drones,” the Ukrainian military’s general staff said in a post on Facebook. In turn, Russia’s Ministry of Defence accused Kyiv of nearly 2,000 breaches. The Russian ministry claimed Kyiv had fired 258 times using artillery or tanks, carried out 1,329 FPV drone strikes, and dropped “various types of munitions” on 375 occasions, notably via drones.
Moscow also accused the Ukrainian military of launching “three nighttime attacks” against Russian positions and “four attempts to advance” along the front line, while claiming to have thwarted each. Meanwhile, the Kremlin said Russia would not extend the truce unless Kyiv accepts its terms. This can be done literally today.
But Zelenskyy must accept these well-known solutions,” Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov said, according to Russian news agencies. He also said Russian troops still needed to take control of 17-18 percent of Ukraine’s disputed Donetsk region. However, in a sign that the truce had some effect, the Ukrainian army stressed that it had recorded no long-range Shahed drone attacks, guided aerial bombings or missile strikes.
Ukraine has had to deal with near-nightly barrages of hundreds of Russian drones, prompting retaliation from Kyiv. In northeastern Ukraine’s Kharkiv region, Lieutenant Colonel Vasyl Kobziak told the news agency on Sunday morning that things were “rather calm” in his sector. While the 32-year-old officer said the truce had not been “fully” observed, the lull had allowed his soldiers of the 33rd Mechanised Brigade to attend an Easter Sunday mass outside in the freezing forest chill.
The truce had been due to last for 32 hours, from 4pm ( ) on Saturday until the end of the day on Sunday, according to the Kremlin. In Russia’s Kursk region, which borders Ukraine, Governor Alexander Khinshtein also accused Kyiv of breaking the ceasefire by attacking a petrol station in the town of Lgov with a drone, injuring three people, including a baby. In his evening address on Saturday, Zelenskyy called for a longer ceasefire, insisting the ball was in Moscow’s court.
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