Easter ceasefire frays

Russia and Ukraine’s Easter truce began on Saturday and was under strain within hours, with both sides reporting fresh attacks by Sunday. (apnews.com) President Vladimir Putin ordered a 32-hour halt in fighting from 4 p.m. Moscow time on Saturday, April 11, to the end of Sunday for Orthodox Easter. President Volodymyr Zelenskyy said Ukraine would observe the pause but respond “symmetrically” to any violations. (abcnews.com) By Sunday morning, Moscow said Ukrainian forces had committed 1,971 violations, including shelling and drone attacks, according to Russian state reporting cited by other outlets. Kyiv said Russian forces had carried out hundreds of attacks as well, including artillery fire and drone strikes along front-line sectors. (rferl.org) The ceasefire followed overnight strikes before it took effect. In Odesa, Russian drones killed at least two people and wounded two more, damaging apartment buildings, houses and a kindergarten, Ukrainian officials said. (apnews.com) Hours before the pause, the two countries completed one of the few channels of wartime cooperation that still functions: a prisoner exchange. Russia and Ukraine each released 175 prisoners of war in a swap mediated by the United Arab Emirates. (euronews.com) Zelenskyy said the returning Ukrainians included soldiers who fought in Mariupol and in the Donetsk, Luhansk, Kharkiv, Kherson, Zaporizhzhia, Sumy and Kursk areas. Russia said it also received 22 severely wounded servicemen in what it described as a goodwill gesture. (politico.eu) Short holiday truces have repeatedly failed in this war. A similar Easter pause in 2025 also broke down quickly, with both sides accusing the other of continuing fire. (euronews.com) That leaves the latest ceasefire looking less like a sustained halt in combat than a narrow test of whether either side can hold fire even for 32 hours. By Sunday, the prisoner swap was the clearest part of the agreement that both militaries had actually carried out. (cbsnews.com)