Ukraine’s Volodymyr Zelensky accuses Russia of 2,000 ceasefire violations amid Easter truce
Ukrainian president Volodymyr Zelensky on Sunday accused Russia of carrying out more than 2,000 violations of the Easter truce his Russian counterpart Vladimir Putin had announced.
Ukraine’s President Volodymyr Zelensky said that there were a total of 1,355 cases of Russian shelling, 713 of which involved heavy weaponry.(AFP)
In a post on X, Zelensky said, “As of this hour, since the beginning of the day, the Russian army has violated Putin’s ceasefire more than two thousand times. There have already been 67 Russian assaults against our positions across various directions, with the highest number in the Pokrovsk direction. There were a total of 1,355 cases of Russian shelling, 713 of which involved heavy weaponry. The Russians also used FPVs 673 times.”
He also noted that no air raid alerts were issued for the day.
Additionally, Zelensky also proposed a full ceasefire, starting from Easter, lasting for 30 days. He said that Ukraine proposes 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.
However, the Ukrainian president said that if Russia does not agree to such a ceasefire, then it will be “proof that it intends to continue doing only those things which destroy human lives and prolong the war”.
Putin’s Easter truce
Earlier, Putin had announced a ‘Easter’ truce from Saturday to Sunday midnight, saying it was motivated by “humanitarian reasons”. To this, Zelensky responded by saying that Kyiv was ready to follow suit and proposed an extension of the truce for 30 days to “give peace a chance”.
Later, Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov said that the Russian president gave no order to extend the truce.
The 30-hour truce, which was meant to begin on Saturday to mark the Easter holiday, witnessed both Russia and Ukraine accusing each other of violations.
While Zelensky accused Russia of keeping up its attacks on the front line, Moscow said that it had “repelled” assaults by Kyiv and accused it of launching hundreds of drones and shells, causing civilian casualties.
“Despite the announcement of the Easter truce, Ukrainian units at night made attempts to attack” Russia’s positions in the Donetsk region, Moscow’s defence ministry said, insisting that its troops had “strictly observed the ceasefire”.
Putin’s Easter truce came in the backdrop of months of efforts by US president Donald Trump to bring a permanent ceasefire to the war. However, Trump on Friday had threatened to withdraw from talks if no progress was made.
Russia launched its full-scale invasion of Ukraine in February 2022, and now occupying around 20 per cent of the country.
