Ukraine and Russia report fighting as ‘Easter truce’ ends

Ukraine and Russia have accused each other of breaching a 30-hour “Easter truce” announced by Russian President Vladimir Putin on Saturday, which has now expired.

Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky said Russian troops had violated the ceasefire nearly 3,000 times since the start of Sunday.

Russia’s defence ministry said it had “repelled” assaults by Ukraine and accused Kyiv of launching hundreds of drones and shells. The BBC has not independently verified claims by the warring sides.

Meanwhile, US President Donald Trump – who has been pushing for an end to the war – said that “hopefully Russia and Ukraine will make a deal this week”, without giving further details.

Russia launched a full-scale invasion of Ukraine on 24 February 2022, and currently controls about 20% Ukraine’s territory, including the southern Crimea peninsula annexed by Moscow in 2014.

It is estimated that hundreds of thousands of people – the vast majority of them soldiers – have been killed or injured on all sides since 2022.

Last month, Moscow came up with a long list of conditions in response to a full and unconditional ceasefire that had been agreed by the US and Ukraine.

On Saturday, Putin said there would be an end to all hostilities from 18:00 Moscow time (16:00 BST) on Saturday until midnight on Sunday (22:00 BST). Kyiv said it would also adhere.

“For this period, I order all military actions to cease,” Putin said in his announcement.

“We assume that the Ukrainian side will follow our example. At the same time, our troops must be ready to repel possible violations of the truce and provocations from the enemy, any of its aggressive actions.”

However, Zelensky said late on Sunday that there was a total of 1,882 cases of Russian shelling, 812 of which involved heavy weaponry according to a report from Commander-in-Chief of the Armed Forces of Ukraine Oleksandr Syrskyi.

The president said the heaviest shelling and assaults were in eastern Ukraine near the besieged city of Pokrovsk, a key logistics hub in the Donetsk region.

“The nature of Ukrainian actions will continue to be mirrored: we will respond to silence with silence, our strikes will be to protect against Russian strikes,” Zelensky said.

Earlier in the day, he said that “there were no air raid alerts today”, referring to Russia’s daily drone and missile strikes against Ukraine.

He proposed “to cease any strikes using long-range drones and missiles on civilian infrastructure for a period of at least 30 days, with the possibility of extension”.

Zelensky also said Putin’s declaration of a truce amounted to a “PR” exercise and his words were “empty”. He also accused the Kremlin of trying to create “a general impression of a ceasefire”.

“This Easter has clearly demonstrated that the only source of this war, and the reason it drags on, is Russia,” the president said.

The Russian defence ministry insisted its troops had “strictly observed the ceasefire”.

Meanwhile, Russian Foreign Ministry spokeswoman Maria Zakharova accused Ukraine of using US-supplied Himars missiles during the ceasefire.

Several hours before the truce expired, Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov said Putin had not given an order to extend it, Russia’s state-run news agency Tass reported.

The surprise ceasefire announcement came shortly after US Trump threatened to “take a pass” on brokering further Russia-Ukraine peace talks.

However, a state department spokesperson said on Sunday that Washington remained “committed to achieving a full and comprehensive ceasefire”.

“It is long past time to stop the death and destruction and end this war,” the spokesperson added.

There were mixed reactions about the 30-hour truce from Ukrainians attending Easter morning services in Kyiv and the Russian-occupied city of Donetsk on Sunday.

“I do not think this man [Putin] has anything to do with humanity,” 45-year-old lawyer Olena Poprych told Reuters news agency.

Meanwhile in Donetsk, which has been under Russian control since 2014, residents expressed similar distrust that Zelensky will stick to the terms of the ceasefire.

“I watched very closely his [Zelensky’s] reactions,” said Vladimir, who attended an Easter morning service in the city.

“There was nothing about the ceasefire… just some vague statements, not giving any confidence that we will not be shelled.”

On Sunday, the British government described the proposed ceasefire as a “one day stunt”, saying that the claimed truce involved “violations, including the killing and wounding of more innocent Ukrainians”.

The statement from the Foreign, Commonwealth and Development Office (FCDO) said that the truce fitted the “pattern of previous fake ceasefires” and instead called for a longer 30 day pause in the fighting, as proposed by Ukraine.

“As ever, we see no evidence that President Putin is seriously preparing for peace,” the FCDO statement said.

The US has been directly talking to Russia as part of its efforts to end the war, but has struggled to make major progress.

On Friday, Secretary of State Marco Rubio said the US was not “going to continue with this endeavour for weeks and months on end”, as it had “other priorities to focus on”.

“We need to determine very quickly now – and I’m talking about a matter of days – whether or not this is doable,” he added.

“If it’s not going to happen, then we’re just going to move on.”