Russian attacks during a 30-hour Easter ceasefire declared by President Vladimir Putin over the weekend killed three people in Ukraine’s Kherson region, a regional official said Monday. The ceasefire was unilaterally declared by Putin on Saturday.
Ukraine responded to the move by voicing readiness to reciprocate any genuine ceasefire but said Russian forces continued to carry out attacks. Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy said Russia violated the ceasefire more than 2,900 times during the ceasefire period.
The situation escalated as Russian forces launched assault operations along the front line, shelling Ukrainian positions over 1,800 times and using hundreds of drones. The Russian Defense Ministry listed 4,900 Ukrainian violations of the ceasefire.
Putin said that the fighting resumed after the ceasefire expired at midnight. He has previously made a full ceasefire conditional on halting Western arms supplies to Kyiv and Ukraine’s mobilization effort — demands rejected by Ukraine.
The situation remains volatile as Zelenskyy calls for a comprehensive 30-day ceasefire or, at least, a halt on strikes on civilian facilities. The Ukrainian president said that Russia is trying to “seize the initiative,” adding that “we must think about it, carefully assess everything and look at the results of the ceasefire.”
Despite efforts to negotiate a peace deal, tensions remain high. Russian forces have fired missiles and drones across Ukraine’s southern regions, including Kherson and Mykolaiv, and the country’s Air Force reported downing 42 drones while jamming mid-flight.
A regional administration head in Dnipropetrovsk region reported that Russian drones sparked a fire at an “outbuilding” and a food enterprise. No one was injured in the attack. An unspecified infrastructure object was damaged in the Cherkasy region overnight.
Meanwhile, Ukrainian civilians sustained injuries in the partially occupied Donetsk region due to Russian shelling five times over the last 24 hours.
Source: https://apnews.com/article/russia-ukraine-war-easter-ceasefire-26e8cc7c934a70c52bd3fab0e58808b8