Kyiv and Moscow accuse one another of breaking Easter ceasefire

MOSCOW/KYIV — Russia and Ukraine blamed one another on Sunday for breaking a one-day Easter ceasefire declared by President Vladimir Putin, with both sides accusing the opposite of a whole lot of assaults and the Kremlin saying there was no order for a ceasefire extension.

Putin, who despatched 1000’s of Russian troops into Ukraine in February 2022, ordered his forces to cease all army exercise alongside the entrance line within the three-year-old battle till midnight Moscow time on Sunday.

TASS information company quoted Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov as saying there was no order from Putin to increase the ceasefire.

In Washington, the State Division mentioned it will welcome an extension.

Ukraine’s international minister, Andrii Sybiha, mentioned Moscow’s actions in coming days “will reveal Russia’s true angle towards U.S. peace efforts” and a proposed 30-day ceasefire.

Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy mentioned Russia was pretending to look at the Easter ceasefire, however had carried out a whole lot of artillery assaults on Saturday night time, and extra on Sunday.

Russia launched 67 assaults from midnight till 8 p.m. native time, Zelenskyy wrote on X.

“Both Putin doesn’t have full management over his military, or the state of affairs proves that in Russia, they haven’t any intention of constructing a real transfer towards ending the battle, and are solely concerned with favorable PR protection,” Zelenskyy posted.

“Nonetheless, there have been no air raid alerts at present. Therefore, this can be a format of ceasefire that has been achieved and that’s the best to increase,” he mentioned, proposing that Russia abandon drone and missile strikes on civilian targets for at the least 30 days.

If Russia doesn’t agree, it will likely be proof that it intends to proceed doing solely these issues that destroy human lives and delay the battle, Zelenskyy added.

Russia’s Protection Ministry mentioned Ukraine had damaged the ceasefire greater than 1,000 occasions, damaging infrastructure and inflicting civilian deaths.

The obvious failure to look at even an Easter ceasefire exhibits how exhausting it will likely be for U.S. President Donald Trump to clinch a long-lasting peace deal. The president nonetheless struck an optimistic notice Sunday, saying that “hopefully” the 2 sides would make a deal “this week” to finish the battle.

On Friday, Trump and his secretary of State, Marco Rubio, mentioned the U.S. would stroll away from peace efforts except there are clear indicators of progress quickly.