Russian attacks on Ukraine continue despite 'Easter truce', Zelenskyy says
Russian attacks on Ukraine continued overnight into Easter Sunday, Volodymyr Zelenskyy says - despite Vladimir Putin announcing a 30-hour "Easter truce".
The Ukrainian president said on social media that Russia was "trying to create a general impression of a ceasefire" but there had still been "attempts to advance and inflict losses on Ukraine".
On Saturday, Mr Putin announced a 30-hour ceasefire lasting from 6pm on Saturday to midnight on Easter Sunday - both Moscow time, which is two hours ahead of the UK.
"Guided by humanitarian considerations... the Russian side declares an Easter truce," Mr Putin said at a meeting with chief of general staff Valery Gerasimov.
"I order that all military actions be stopped for this period.
"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."
Mr Zelenskyy claimed Russian attacks were continuing despite the truce announcement.
He said there had been hundreds of instances of shelling on Saturday evening. Early on Sunday, Ukrainian forces reported 59 instances of shelling and five assault attempts along the front line, he said.
He reiterated that Kyiv was willing to extend the ceasefire for 30 days but said that if Russia kept fighting on Sunday, so would Ukraine.
"Ukraine will continue to act in a mirror manner," he said.
Mr Putin's truce suggestion came soon after Donald Trump threatened to "take a pass" on Ukraine peace talks, after months of efforts have failed to bring an end to the fighting.
On Friday, the US president said negotiations between Ukraine and Russia are "coming to a head" and insisted that neither side is "playing" him in his push to end the grinding three-year war.
Mr Trump spoke shortly after secretary of state Marco Rubio warned that the US may "move on" from trying to secure a Russia-Ukraine peace deal if there was no progress in the coming days.
Shortly after the ceasefire was announced, Ukraine's foreign minister Andrii Sybiha said there had been a "long history" of Mr Putin's words not "matching his actions".
"We know his words cannot be trusted and we will look at actions, not words," he added.
The ceasefire announcement has echoes of January 2023, when Mr Putin ordered his forces in Ukraine to observe a 36-hour truce for Orthodox Christmas.
At that time, Mr Zelenskyy stopped short of stating his forces would reject Mr Putin's request, but dismissed the Russian move as playing for time to regroup its invasion forces and prepare additional attacks.
Prisoner exchange
It comes as Ukraine and Russia conducted a swap of more than 500 prisoners of war on Saturday, the latest in a series of exchanges since Russia launched a full-scale invasion more than three years ago.
0:32
Mr Zelenskyy, in a post on the Telegram messaging app, said 277 Ukrainian service personnel had returned home from Russian captivity.
Russia's defence ministry said 246 servicemen had been handed over by Kyiv.
It said a further 31 injured prisoners of war had been handed over to Ukraine and 15 of its own wounded servicemen had also been returned by Kyiv.
Try Our AI Features
Explore what Daily8 AI can do for you:
Comments
No comments yet...
Related Articles
The Guardian
2 hours ago
- The Guardian
Ukraine war briefing: key eastern Ukrainian city under assault as Russia hails cooperation with North Korea
Ukraine's top commander said on Saturday his forces faced a new onslaught against a key city on the eastern front of its war against Russia, while Moscow said it was making progress in another sector farther south-west. Russian troops are focused on capturing all of the Donetsk region in eastern Ukraine and the city of Kostiantynivka has been a major target. Ukrainian forces have for months defended the city against fierce assaults. Top Ukrainian commander Oleksandr Syrskyi, writing on Telegram, said the area around Kostiantynivka was gripped by heavy fighting. 'The enemy is surging towards Kostiantynivka, but apart from sustaining numerous losses, has achieved nothing,' Syrskyi said. 'The aggressor is trying to break through our defences and advance along three operating sectors.' Russia's defence ministry, in a report earlier in the day, said Moscow's forces had seized the village of Chervona Zirka – further south-west, near the administrative border of the Dnipropetrovsk region. Russia's slow advance through eastern Ukraine, with Moscow claiming a string of villages day after day, has resulted in destruction of major cities and infrastructure. Meanwhile Russia's culture minister, Olga Lyubimova, arrived in North Korea on Saturday with a 125-strong delegation of performers. Lyubimova, writing on the Telegram messaging app, said that thanks to agreements clinched between Russian president Vladimir Putin and North Korea leader Kim Jong-un, 'cooperation in the cultural sphere between our countries has reached unprecedented heights'. She said a series of concerts and lectures would take place in the North Korean capital in the coming days. Since Russia's invasion of Ukraine, Moscow and Pyongyang have drawn closer together, with the two leaders signing a treaty, including a mutual defence pact. After months of silence, North Korea and Russia disclosed the deployment of North Korean troops and the role they played in Moscow's offensive to evict Ukrainian troops from the Kursk region. Moscow has insisted that progress towards a settlement of the war depends on Ukraine recognising Moscow's control over four Ukrainian regions: Luhansk, Donetsk, Zaporizhzhia and Kherson. Russian forces control about one-fifth of Ukraine's territory, but they do not fully hold any of the four regions. The Ukrainian president, Volodymyr Zelenskyy, has said it is 'extremely important' for Kyiv to maintain friendly ties with neighbouring Poland, where the incoming nationalist leader Karol Nawrocki opposes Ukraine's Nato bid. Nawrocki won Poland's presidential election this month after a campaign in which he criticised Ukraine and accused Zelenskyy of 'indecent' behaviour towards his allies. Poland is one of Ukraine's closest allies and has served as a crucial logistics hub for western military aid to help Kyiv's war effort against Russia's now more than three-year-long invasion. Zelenskyy hosted outgoing Polish president Andrzej Duda in Kyiv on Saturday, ahead of Nawrocki's inauguration on 6 August. 'Poland is now preparing for the inauguration of its new president, (Karol) Nawrocki,' Zelenskyy told reporters alongside Duda. 'We will do everything in our power to ensure that relations between our countries only grow stronger.' Poland has taken in more than a million Ukrainians since Russia's invasion of the country began in 2022. But anti-Ukrainian sentiment has grown in recent years.
The Guardian
2 hours ago
- The Guardian
Ukraine war briefing: key eastern Ukrainian city under assault as Russia hails cooperation with North Korea
Ukraine's top commander said on Saturday his forces faced a new onslaught against a key city on the eastern front of its war against Russia, while Moscow said it was making progress in another sector farther south-west. Russian troops are focused on capturing all of the Donetsk region in eastern Ukraine and the city of Kostiantynivka has been a major target. Ukrainian forces have for months defended the city against fierce assaults. Top Ukrainian commander Oleksandr Syrskyi, writing on Telegram, said the area around Kostiantynivka was gripped by heavy fighting. 'The enemy is surging towards Kostiantynivka, but apart from sustaining numerous losses, has achieved nothing,' Syrskyi said. 'The aggressor is trying to break through our defences and advance along three operating sectors.' Russia's defence ministry, in a report earlier in the day, said Moscow's forces had seized the village of Chervona Zirka – further south-west, near the administrative border of the Dnipropetrovsk region. Russia's slow advance through eastern Ukraine, with Moscow claiming a string of villages day after day, has resulted in destruction of major cities and infrastructure. Meanwhile Russia's culture minister, Olga Lyubimova, arrived in North Korea on Saturday with a 125-strong delegation of performers. Lyubimova, writing on the Telegram messaging app, said that thanks to agreements clinched between Russian president Vladimir Putin and North Korea leader Kim Jong-un, 'cooperation in the cultural sphere between our countries has reached unprecedented heights'. She said a series of concerts and lectures would take place in the North Korean capital in the coming days. Since Russia's invasion of Ukraine, Moscow and Pyongyang have drawn closer together, with the two leaders signing a treaty, including a mutual defence pact. After months of silence, North Korea and Russia disclosed the deployment of North Korean troops and the role they played in Moscow's offensive to evict Ukrainian troops from the Kursk region. Moscow has insisted that progress towards a settlement of the war depends on Ukraine recognising Moscow's control over four Ukrainian regions: Luhansk, Donetsk, Zaporizhzhia and Kherson. Russian forces control about one-fifth of Ukraine's territory, but they do not fully hold any of the four regions. The Ukrainian president, Volodymyr Zelenskyy, has said it is 'extremely important' for Kyiv to maintain friendly ties with neighbouring Poland, where the incoming nationalist leader Karol Nawrocki opposes Ukraine's Nato bid. Nawrocki won Poland's presidential election this month after a campaign in which he criticised Ukraine and accused Zelenskyy of 'indecent' behaviour towards his allies. Poland is one of Ukraine's closest allies and has served as a crucial logistics hub for western military aid to help Kyiv's war effort against Russia's now more than three-year-long invasion. Zelenskyy hosted outgoing Polish president Andrzej Duda in Kyiv on Saturday, ahead of Nawrocki's inauguration on 6 August. 'Poland is now preparing for the inauguration of its new president, (Karol) Nawrocki,' Zelenskyy told reporters alongside Duda. 'We will do everything in our power to ensure that relations between our countries only grow stronger.' Poland has taken in more than a million Ukrainians since Russia's invasion of the country began in 2022. But anti-Ukrainian sentiment has grown in recent years.
Reuters
7 hours ago
- Reuters
Chechen leader says Putin congratulated him on son's wedding
June 29 (Reuters) - The head of Russia's Caucasus region of Chechnya, a fervent supporter of Moscow's war in Ukraine, said Kremlin leader Vladimir Putin telephoned him on Saturday to congratulate him on his son's wedding. Ramzan Kadyrov, writing on the Telegram messaging app, said Putin "personally congratulated me ... on this important event and offered his warmest words of congratulation." Kadyrov said he was particularly touched that Putin had found the time to call "despite being so colossally busy with matters of state. This is a very dear thing." Kadyrov has led Chechnya, a mountainous Muslim region in southern Russia that tried to break away from Moscow in wars that followed the collapse of the Soviet Union, since 2007. He has sent large contingents of troops to boost Russian ranks in the 40-month-old war against Ukraine and in the conflict's early stages commented frequently on events on the battlefield. His son, Adam, who turns 18 in November, already holds several positions in the region's security structures. Reports from the region said he was appointed secretary of Chechnya's security council in April. He also serves as his father's top bodyguard, a trustee of Chechnya's Special Forces University, and an observer in a new army battalion.
