Easter truce collapses
A short Easter ceasefire between Russia and Ukraine has expired with both sides accusing the other of breaching the pause. (aljazeera.com) Ukraine said it logged 7,696 alleged Russian violations while Russia reported 1,971 violations, and the two sides exchanged 175 prisoners during the ceasefire interval. (independent.co.uk) (theguardian.com)
Russia’s Easter ceasefire with Ukraine expired on Monday after a 32-hour pause that both sides said the other had repeatedly broken. (france24.com) The Kremlin said President Vladimir Putin ordered the halt from 4 p.m. Moscow time on Saturday, April 11, to the end of Sunday, April 12, for Orthodox Easter. President Volodymyr Zelensky said Ukraine would mirror any real pause but would answer attacks. (france24.com) (aljazeera.com) By Sunday night, Ukraine’s military said it had recorded 7,696 Russian violations during the truce, while Russia’s Defense Ministry said Ukrainian forces committed 1,971 violations. Both sides also said front-line shelling and drone attacks continued during the supposed pause. (independent.co.uk) (france24.com) The brief truce still produced one concrete humanitarian step: Russia and Ukraine exchanged 175 prisoners each over the weekend. Multiple reports said the United Arab Emirates helped mediate the swap. (theguardian.com) (crisis.zone) The collapse matters because even a holiday pause could not hold along a front stretching roughly 1,200 kilometers, with both armies still trading fire in the war’s fifth year. France 24 reported a temporary drop in air and missile strikes, but no durable stop in battlefield fighting. (france24.com) It also fits a pattern. Putin announced a similar Easter ceasefire in 2025, and both Moscow and Kyiv accused each other of breaking that one too. (nbcnews.com) This year’s pause came after Zelensky had publicly floated a holiday truce through the United States, while Moscow had earlier signaled it preferred talks on a broader settlement instead of a short break. The Kremlin’s ceasefire announcement did not mention Kyiv’s earlier proposal. (france24.com) (onmanorama.com) Russian and Ukrainian statements on Sunday followed the same script seen in past truces: each side said it was observing the pause when possible and responding only after being attacked. Independent verification from the front remained limited as the ceasefire window closed. (reuters.com) (cbsnews.com) By Monday, the fighting pause was over, the accusations were still rising, and the prisoner swap stood out as the only result both sides could point to from the Easter interval. (france24.com) (theguardian.com)
