Easter ceasefire falters
Ukraine and Russia accused each other of thousands of violations after an Orthodox Easter ceasefire began this week, with both sides reporting nearly symmetric counts of breaches. (bbc.com) Ukrainian officials said Russian drone strikes continued against residential areas in Odesa and Kherson despite the truce, and multiple outlets reported ongoing attacks and battlefield incidents. (theguardian.com) Ahead of the truce the sides did exchange 175 prisoners each, and President Zelensky said Ukraine was ready to extend the ceasefire even as violations persisted. ( )
Russia’s Easter ceasefire in Ukraine began as a 32-hour pause and quickly turned into dueling claims of mass violations by both sides. (politico.eu) By Sunday morning, Ukraine’s military said it had recorded 2,299 Russian breaches, while Russia’s Defense Ministry said Ukrainian forces had violated the truce 1,971 times. President Vladimir Putin had ordered the ceasefire from 4 p.m. Saturday until the end of Orthodox Easter on Sunday. (politico.eu (abcnews.com) Ukrainian officials said Russian drone strikes continued after the truce took effect, including attacks on residential areas in Odesa and Kherson. Earlier strikes ahead of the ceasefire killed at least two people in Odesa, according to local authorities cited by multiple outlets. (theguardian.com (cbsnews.com) On the front line, Ukrainian officer Serhii Kolesnychenko said artillery fire had eased in his sector, but Russian forces kept using drones near the junction of the Donetsk, Dnipropetrovsk and Zaporizhzhia regions. Ukraine said its troops would answer “silence with silence” and return fire if attacked. (theguardian.com (kyivindependent.com) The ceasefire came after months of stalled diplomacy and more than four years of full-scale war since Russia’s February 2022 invasion. Even a short holiday truce carries weight because it offers one of the few tests of whether either side can enforce a pause across a long, active front. (aljazeera.com (abcnews.com) The Kremlin presented the Easter pause as a humanitarian step, while Kyiv said it would honor the truce only if Russia did the same. President Volodymyr Zelensky said Ukraine had told Moscow it was ready to extend the ceasefire beyond April 12 if attacks stopped. (abcnews.com (kyivindependent.com) Just before the truce, the two countries carried out a prisoner exchange of 175 servicemen each, with Zelensky also saying seven civilians returned to Ukraine. Reuters reported the United Arab Emirates mediated the swap. (usnews.com (france24.com) That left the Easter weekend with two conflicting pictures at once: a rare exchange of prisoners and a ceasefire both sides said the other had already broken thousands of times. (politico.eu (usnews.com)
