Easter truce falters
Russia and Ukraine agreed to a short Orthodox Easter pause and exchanged 175 prisoners each, but reports say the pause quickly broke down as Russian drone strikes continued on Ukrainian positions and some civilian areas. (reuters.com) (apnews.com)
Russia’s Easter ceasefire in Ukraine began on Saturday, but Ukrainian officials said Russian drones kept hitting front-line positions within hours. (apnews.com) The Kremlin said the pause would run from 4 p.m. Moscow time on April 11 until the end of April 12, covering Orthodox Easter Sunday. President Volodymyr Zelensky said Ukraine would respond in kind if Russia actually stopped firing. (reuters.com) (france24.com) Hours before the truce, the two sides completed a 175-for-175 prisoner exchange mediated by the United Arab Emirates. Zelensky said Ukraine also brought home seven civilians in the same return. (reuters.com) (euronews.com) Ukrainian authorities reported that Russian drones struck Odesa overnight before the ceasefire window, killing at least two people and injuring several others. On the front, a Ukrainian artillery brigade officer told The Associated Press that shelling eased in his sector after the deadline, but drone attacks continued. (apnews.com) (nbcnews.com) The short pause landed in the fourth year of Russia’s full-scale invasion, with broader peace efforts still stalled. Reuters reported that Zelensky had floated a holiday truce through the United States before Putin announced the Kremlin’s version. (reuters.com) (rferl.org) Both governments framed the ceasefire as conditional. The Kremlin said Russian forces were ordered to stop combat but stay ready to answer “provocations,” while Zelensky said any silence in the fighting should be extended if it proved real. (france24.com) (euronews.com) That left the prisoner swap as the clearest piece of cooperation and the ceasefire itself as an immediate test. By Saturday night, Ukraine was saying the test was already failing. (reuters.com) (apnews.com)
