Easter truce collapses in Ukraine
A 32‑hour Easter truce between Ukraine and Russia has expired with both sides accusing the other of thousands of violations and fighting resuming. (theguardian.com) Drone strikes resumed overnight and officials reported at least one person killed in Donetsk during the pause. ( ) Ukraine also said it pulled back in eastern Sumy oblast and accused Russia of nearly 11,000 ceasefire violations. ( )
Fighting resumed in Ukraine as a 32-hour Orthodox Easter truce expired and both sides said the other had violated it thousands of times. (theguardian.com) Russia’s ceasefire ran from 6 p.m. Moscow time on Saturday, April 11, to midnight on Sunday, April 13, after President Vladimir Putin announced it on April 9. President Volodymyr Zelensky said Ukraine would mirror Russia’s actions during the pause but respond to any attacks. (nbcnews.com) By the end of the truce, Ukraine’s General Staff said Russian forces had violated it 10,721 times during the 32-hour period. Russia’s defense ministry said Ukraine committed 1,971 violations overnight into Sunday. (kyivindependent.com, thestar.com.my) Ukrainian officials said Russian drone strikes resumed overnight after the pause ended, and police said a first-person-view drone killed one person in Druzhkivka in Donetsk region on April 12. RTE reported that attacks restarted soon after the ceasefire expired. (usnews.com, rte.ie) The truce was one of the few declared pauses in a war that is now in its fifth year. Both governments used the Easter weekend to argue that the other side could not be trusted to hold even a short halt in fighting. (cbc.ca, themoscowtimes.com) Ukraine also said its forces had withdrawn from villages in eastern Sumy oblast amid heavy Russian pressure near the border. That pullback was reported on the same day Kyiv said the Easter pause had largely failed. (kyivindependent.com) The ceasefire followed an earlier Ukrainian proposal for a broader pause that Moscow had rejected in late March, according to the Kyiv Independent. Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov said Russia would not extend the Easter truce unless Zelensky accepted Moscow’s terms. (kyivindependent.com, cbsnews.com) By Monday, the brief holiday lull had given way to the same pattern the war has followed for months: dueling claims, drone attacks, and no sign that a short religious pause had changed the front. (theguardian.com, rte.ie)
