Ukraine\u2019s President Volodymyr Zelensky accused Russia of creating a \u201cgeneral impression\u201d of a ceasefire while continuing to pummel parts of the front line, despite Russian President Vladimir Putin announcing a brief cessation in fighting for Easter. <\/p>\n
Putin\u2019s surprise announcement on Saturday, ordering his forces to \u201cstop all military activity\u201d along the front line from 6 p.m. Moscow time on Saturday (11 a.m. ET) until midnight on Monday (5 p.m. Sunday ET) was met with immediate skepticism from Ukraine, although Kyiv agreed to the truce. <\/p>\n
Questions were raised over Putin\u2019s motives in calling the brief halt to hostilities, which came soon after the Trump administration threatened to abandon peace efforts without tangible signs of progress. <\/p>\n
By Easter Sunday morning, the ceasefire had already been violated multiple times, Zelensky said. Ukraine\u2019s military said that while activity along the front line had decreased, the fighting had not stopped. <\/p>\n
Between 6 p.m. local time on Saturday, when the ceasefire went into effect, and midnight, there were 387 instances of shelling and 19 assaults by Russian forces, Zelensky said in a post on X. <\/p>\n
\u201cOverall, as of Easter morning we can state that the Russian army is attempting to create the general impression of a ceasefire, while in some areas still continuing isolated attempts to advance and inflict losses on Ukraine,\u201d Zelensky said, citing a report from General Oleksandr Syrskyi, Commander-in-Chief of Ukraine\u2019s Armed Forces. <\/p>\n
In Russia\u2019s Kursk region \u2013 the scene of a shock Ukrainian incursion last year \u2013 Moscow\u2019s forces conducted artillery strikes and used drones, he added. <\/p>\n
\u201cEverywhere our warriors are responding as the enemy deserves, based on the specific combat situation. Ukraine will continue to act symmetrically,\u201d Zelensky said. <\/p>\n
In a post later Sunday, Zelensky said Ukraine\u2019s military had recorded an increase in Russian shelling and the use of \u201ckamikaze\u201d drones since 10 a.m. local time. \u201cIn practice, either Putin does not have full control over his army, or the situation proves that in Russia, they have no intention of making a genuine move toward ending the war, and are only interested in favorable PR coverage,\u201d he added. <\/p>\n
There does appear at least to be a let-up in the near-daily, deadly aerial attacks on Ukraine. The Ukrainian Air Force said it had not recorded any aerial threats from missiles or drones from Russia since Saturday night, while Russia\u2019s Defense Ministry did not report any drone or missile attacks on Russia overnight. <\/p>\n
For its part, Russia\u2019s defense ministry said Sunday that its forces had been \u201cstrictly observing\u201d the ceasefire since 6 p.m. on Saturday evening, and accused Ukraine of violating the pause in fighting over 1,000 times. <\/p>\n
The ministry said that Ukrainian units had shot at Russian positions 444 times during the night, carried out over 900 drone attacks and used 48 plane-type UAVs. <\/p>\n
\u201cAs a result, there were deaths and injuries among the civilian population and damage to civilian objects,\u201d a statement from the ministry claimed. <\/p>\n
The Ukrainian leader has called for the ceasefire to be extended to 30 days, in line with a US-led proposal last month. On Sunday morning, he said that the proposal still stands, despite the accusations of repeated violations. <\/p>\n
\u201cRussia must fully comply with the conditions of the ceasefire. Ukraine\u2019s proposal to implement and extend the ceasefire for 30 days after midnight tonight remains on the table. We will act in accordance with the actual situation on the ground.\u201d <\/p>\n
Ukraine\u2019s Armed Forces have stated that they will comply with orders to limit fire on Russia\u2019s army, but would not show restraint if fired on first. <\/p>\n
A commander on the ground warned Sunday: \u201cYesterday we were told to limit fire against the Russians. If they don\u2019t assault or provoke us, we don\u2019t fire. If they move or fire at us, we can answer.\u201d <\/p>\n
Putin said the ceasefire was on humanitarian grounds but added that his troops would respond to any \u201cprovocations.\u201d <\/p>\n<\/p>\n
<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
Ukraine\u2019s President Volodymyr Zelensky accused Russia of creating a \u201cgeneral impression\u201d of a ceasefire while continuing to pummel parts of the front line, despite Russian President Vladimir Putin announcing a brief cessation in fighting for Easter. Putin\u2019s surprise announcement on Saturday, ordering his forces to \u201cstop all military activity\u201d along the front line from 6 <\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":15517,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[23],"tags":[],"class_list":{"0":"post-15516","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-world-news"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/digitaltradecenter.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/15516","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/digitaltradecenter.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/digitaltradecenter.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/digitaltradecenter.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/digitaltradecenter.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=15516"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/digitaltradecenter.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/15516\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/digitaltradecenter.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/15517"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/digitaltradecenter.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=15516"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/digitaltradecenter.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=15516"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/digitaltradecenter.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=15516"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}