KRAMATORSK, Ukraine — Ukraine’s Volodymyr Zelensky on Sunday said Russian forces were continuing their shelling and assaults along the front line despite Russian President Vladimir
Ukraine’s Volodymyr Zelensky on Sunday said Russian forces were continuing their shelling and assaults along the front line despite Russian President Vladimir Putin announcing a surprise but brief Easter truce.
The 30-hour truce would be the most significant pause in the fighting throughout the three-year conflict.
But just hours after the order was meant to have come into effect, air-raid sirens sounded in Kyiv and several other Ukrainian regions, with Zelensky accusing Russia of having maintained its attacks.
“Across various frontline directions, there have already been 59 cases of Russian shelling and five assaults by Russian units,” Zelensky said on social media, citing a report as of 6:00 am (0300 GMT) from Ukrainian commander-in-chief Oleksandr Syrsky.
He said that in the six hours up to midnight (2100 GMT) Saturday, there were “387 instances of shelling and 19 assaults by Russian forces,” with drones “used by Russians 290 times”.
“Overall, as of Easter morning, we can state that the Russian army is attempting to create the general impression of a ceasefire, while in some areas still continuing isolated attempts to advance and inflict losses on Ukraine,” Zelensky’s post said.
Putin’s order to halt all combat over the Easter weekend came after months of efforts by US President Donald Trump to get Moscow and Kyiv to agree a ceasefire.
