Zelensky accuses Russia of breaking the Easter ceasefire in spite of Putin’s One-Day Truce declaration

Zelensky claimed that despite Putin’s announcement of a temporary Easter ceasefire, Russian forces persisted in their attacks on Ukraine throughout the night.

Despite President Vladimir Putin’s official announcement of a temporary pause in hostilities, Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky has accused Russia of breaking a one-day Easter truce, saying that Moscow’s forces had maintained offensive operations over portions of the front line.

“As of Easter morning, we can say that the Russian army is trying to create a general impression of a ceasefire, but in some places it does not abandon individual attempts to advance and inflict losses on Ukraine,” Zelensky stated in a social media post.

Putin declared the truce late on Saturday night, right before he went to an Orthodox Easter service. It was set to begin at 6 p.m. Moscow time (1500 GMT) on Saturday and expire at midnight on Sunday. He gave his troops orders to “stop all military activity” along the front line of the three-year-old conflict for the designated amount of time.

The announcement of the ceasefire came after the United States threatened to pull out of peace discussions unless Kyiv and Moscow demonstrated a sincere interest in engaging in dialogue.

But according to Zelensky, Ukrainian forces documented hundreds of shelling incidents on Saturday night alone, while Russian troops also reported five assault attempts and 59 shelling incidents early on Sunday morning.

“The conditions of silence must be fully adhered to by Russia,” Zelensky said.

Ukraine had offered to prolong the ceasefire for another 30 days, he noted, but he maintained that further Russian aggression would be met with an equal response.

He declared, “Ukraine will continue to act in a mirror manner.”
Regarding the claims of continued attacks, the Kremlin did not immediately respond.