KEY POINTS
- Zelensky claimed Russia continued shelling and assaults
- Russia’s Defence Ministry said it repelled Ukrainian attacks
- Moscow accused Kyiv of launching hundreds of drones
- Zelensky said that Ukraine saw hundreds of attacks and drone launches
- Putin ordered the 30-hour truce over the Easter weekend
- Ukraine and Russia conducted the largest prisoner swap on Saturday
KYIV, Ukraine: Russia and Ukraine on Sunday accused each other of violating an Easter truce announced by Russian President Vladimir Putin.
Despite Putin’s call for a 30-hour ceasefire starting on Saturday evening, both sides reported ongoing attacks along the front line.
Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky said Russian forces were continuing their shelling and assaults along the front line despite Putin announcing the surprise truce.
The 30-hour truce started on Saturday evening to mark the religious holiday and could be the most significant pause in the fighting throughout the three-year war.
But Zelensky accused Russia of having kept up its attacks on the front line after the truce started.
Russia’s defence ministry said it had “repelled” attempted assaults by Ukraine and accused Kyiv of launching hundreds of drones and shells, causing civilian casualties.
“Despite the announcement of the Easter truce, Ukrainian units at night made attempts to attack” Russia’s positions in the Donetsk region, the ministry added.
A woman and two children were wounded by a drone attack in Russia’s Belgorod border region, the governor Vyacheslav Gladkov, said.
The mayor of Gorlovka in the Russian controlled part of the Donetsk region, Ivan Prikhodko, said two civilians had been wounded.
Zelensky said Ukraine saw hundreds of attacks and drone launches on Sunday.
“The Ukrainian army is acting and will continue to act in an absolutely mirror image” of Russia, Zelensky said.
The Russian defence ministry insisted its troops had “strictly observed the ceasefire”.
Putin’s order to halt all combat
Putin’s order to halt all combat over the Easter weekend came after months of efforts by US President Donald Trump to get Moscow and Kyiv to agree to a ceasefire.
On Friday, Washington even threatened to withdraw from talks if no progress was made.
A Ukrainian drone unit commander said that Russia’s activity had “significantly decreased both in Zaporizhzhia and Kharkiv regions”, the war-torn areas in the south and northeast where the unit is active.
“Several assaults were recorded, but those were solitary incidents involving small groups,” the commander said as quoted by AFP.
A Russian Defence Ministry statement accused Ukraine of launching 48 drones during an overnight attack.
The statement further accused Ukraine of attacking its military positions using gun and mortar fire 444 times since the start of the ceasefire.
It also claimed that Kyiv further carried out 900 drone attacks, as well as dropped various munitions on border areas in Russia’s Belgorod, Bryansk, and Kursk regions.
“As a result, there are civilian casualties and injuries, as well as damage to civilian objects,” it added.
Separately, Rodion Miroshnik, the Russian Foreign Ministry’s ambassador-at-large, claimed on Telegram that Kyiv launched multiple strikes on Moscow-controlled territories in Ukraine’s Donetsk, Kherson, and Luhansk regions since the start of the ceasefire.
Russia-Ukraine talks
Putin announced the truce from 6 pm (1500 GMT) Saturday to midnight Sunday (2100 GMT Sunday) in televised comments, saying it was motivated by “humanitarian reasons”.
While he expected Ukraine to comply, Putin said that Russian troops “must be ready to resist possible breaches of the truce and provocations by the enemy”.
Zelensky said Ukraine would follow suit, and proposed extending the truce 30 days beyond Sunday to “give peace a chance”.
He said Sunday that Russia “has not yet responded to this”.
Putin earlier rejected a proposed 30-day full and unconditional ceasefire.
Previous attempts at holding ceasefires for Easter in April 2022 and Orthodox Christmas in January 2023 were not implemented after both sides failed to agree on them.
Russia, Ukraine prisoners swap
Ukraine and Russia conducted a swap of more than 500 prisoners of war on Saturday, the latest in a series of exchanges since the war started in February 2022.
Zelenskiy, in a post on the Telegram messaging app, said 277 Ukrainian service personnel had returned home from Russian captivity.
Russia’s Defence Ministry said 246 servicemen had been handed over by Kyiv.
It said a further 31 injured prisoners of war had been handed over to Ukraine and 15 of its own wounded servicemen had also been returned by Kyiv.
All Russian servicemen were now in Belarus awaiting transfer back home.
Zelensky said a total of 4,552 Ukrainians – service personnel and civilians – had been returned since the start of the war.
