Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky stated that Russian forces were merely pretending to uphold a one-day Easter ceasefire declared by President Vladimir Putin, while continuing overnight efforts to inflict casualties on Ukraine’s front lines.
Just hours before attending an Orthodox Easter service yesterday evening, Mr. Putin ordered his forces to “stop all military activity” along the front line in the three-year-long conflict until midnight Moscow time (10pm Irish time) tonight.
This gesture came on the heels of a US announcement warning that it could withdraw from peace talks within days unless Moscow and Kyiv demonstrated a genuine willingness to negotiate.
“As of Easter morning, we can assert that the Russian army is attempting to create a broad perception of a ceasefire, yet in certain areas, it continues to make individual efforts to advance and cause losses to Ukraine,” Mr. Zelensky shared in a social media post.
Ukrainian forces reported 59 instances of shelling and five assault attempts along the front line earlier this morning, he added.
Although Ukraine’s military confirmed a decrease in front line activity, they stated that the fighting had not ceased entirely.
“It is decreasing, but it hasn’t disappeared. To be honest, we didn’t hold much hope that this would actually happen,” stated Viktor Trehubov, a military spokesperson for Ukraine’s eastern front, on national television.
Russia’s President Vladimir Putin announced the truce yesterday
In Russian-occupied Donetsk in eastern Ukraine, at least three blasts were heard early this morning, according to Russian news agencies.
Russia’s defense ministry claimed that Ukraine had violated the Easter ceasefire over a thousand times.
The ministry reported that Ukrainian forces had fired at Russian positions 444 times and had conducted more than 900 drone attacks, as noted by Interfax.
Additionally, the defense ministry stated that the Russian military had secured control of Novomikhailivka in eastern Ukraine prior to announcing the ceasefire, as reported by RIA news agency.
Reuters was unable to independently verify these battlefield reports immediately.
People wait as their baskets of Easter cakes are being blessed in Lviv, Ukraine
US President Donald Trump has pledged to bring a swift conclusion to the war, while shifting US policy from strongly supporting Kyiv to aligning more with Moscow’s narrative of the conflict.
Last month, after Ukraine accepted Mr. Trump’s proposal for a 30-day truce, which Moscow rejected, both sides only agreed to limited pauses in attacks on energy targets and at sea, accusing each other of breaches.
Mr. Zelensky reiterated Kyiv’s willingness to extend the ceasefire for 30 days but warned that if Russia continued hostilities today, Ukraine would respond in kind.
“Ukraine will continue to act in a mirror manner,” he remarked.
The European Union responded cautiously to Mr. Putin’s ceasefire announcement, asserting that Moscow could end the war immediately if it chose to.
UN spokesperson Stephane Dujarric reaffirmed UN support “for meaningful efforts towards a just, lasting, and comprehensive peace that fully respects Ukraine’s sovereignty, independence, and territorial integrity.”
This year, Easter is celebrated on the same day by both Orthodox and Western churches, and Mr. Zelensky encouraged Ukrainians in an Easter message not to lose hope for peace returning to their nation.
“We know what we are defending. We know what we are fighting for. For whom and for whose sake,” he stated in a social media video, dressed in a traditional Ukrainian embroidered shirt and standing in front of Kyiv’s main church, Saint Sophia Cathedral.
