Easter truce collapses

Russia’s 32-hour Easter ceasefire with Ukraine expired on Monday after both sides said the other kept fighting through the holiday. (france24.com) Ukraine’s general staff said it logged 7,696 Russian violations by 10 p.m. Sunday, including assaults, shelling and drone strikes during the pause that began at 4 p.m. Saturday. Russia’s defense ministry said Ukrainian forces committed nearly 2,000 breaches. (france24.com) (independent.co.uk) The truce still brought a partial lull: Reuters, cited by France 24 and The Straits Times, reported no Russian long-range missile or drone barrages on Ukrainian cities during the ceasefire window. Fighting continued along parts of the roughly 1,200-kilometer front, especially with artillery and first-person-view drones. (france24.com) (straitstimes.com) The Easter pause mattered because direct talks have stalled and both governments have used short humanitarian gestures to test whether any narrower deal can hold. A similar Easter ceasefire last year also unraveled under mutual accusations of violations. (aljazeera.com) (euronews.com) It also came after President Volodymyr Zelensky said Ukraine had proposed a broader halt to attacks on civilian infrastructure, while President Vladimir Putin presented the Easter order as a humanitarian step. Neither side turned the holiday pause into a longer ceasefire by Monday. (nbcnews.com) (abcnews.go.com) Even with the fighting, the two countries completed a prisoner exchange of 175 detainees each over the weekend, one of the few concrete agreements to survive the truce period. Prisoner swaps have remained one of the rare channels that still function between Moscow and Kyiv after more than four years of war. (theguardian.com) (apnews.com) By Monday, the Easter ceasefire had ended where it began: as a brief pause with fewer air raids, continued front-line combat, and no sign of a broader stop to the war. (france24.com)