Easter truce collapsed
An Easter ceasefire in Ukraine quickly unraveled, with Ukraine recording more than 2,000 alleged violations and Russia claiming roughly 1,900 breaches during the pause. (theguardian.com) Reuters reported at least one person killed in Donetsk in a drone attack before the truce expired. (reuters.com)
A 32-hour Easter ceasefire in Ukraine ended on April 13 with both armies accusing the other of breaking it thousands of times. (france24.com) Ukraine’s military said Russia committed 2,935 violations during the pause, including 96 assault operations and 1,882 cases of shelling. Russia’s Defense Ministry said Ukrainian forces carried out 1,971 violations, including attacks in the Bryansk, Kursk and Belgorod border regions. (france24.com) (thestar.com.my) Volodymyr Zelensky said air-raid alerts eased during the truce and proposed extending a halt on long-range drone and missile strikes against civilian targets for 30 days. Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov said Russia would not extend the Easter pause. (france24.com) (cbsnews.com) The ceasefire mattered because it was one of the few declared pauses in fighting since Russia’s full-scale invasion began in February 2022, and it covered a front line that France 24 described as roughly 1,200 kilometers long. The truce began on April 11 and ran through Orthodox Easter on April 12 before expiring overnight into April 13. (france24.com) (apnews.com) The breakdown also exposed the basic problem with short truces in this war: neither side described a shared monitoring system or enforcement mechanism. The Institute for the Study of War said the dueling accusations showed how hard it is to sustain a ceasefire without clear terms and dispute-resolution rules. (understandingwar.org) (criticalthreats.org) Fighting did not fully stop on the ground. Reuters reported that a first-person-view drone strike killed one person in Druzhkivka in Donetsk region on April 12 before the truce expired, and local officials separately reported another death and injuries in the region over the same period. (usnews.com) (thestar.com.my) The Easter pause followed another recent limited deal: a U.S.-brokered agreement in March to pause strikes in the Black Sea and on energy infrastructure, which both sides later accused each other of violating. Those earlier disputes left little trust behind this holiday truce. (apnews.com) (understandingwar.org) By Monday, the brief Easter lull had given way to the war’s usual pattern: competing casualty claims, disputed violation counts and no agreement to keep the guns quiet beyond the holiday. (france24.com) (cbsnews.com)
