Kamal Ghorui
An Easter ceasefire between Vladimir Putin and Volodymyr Zelenskyy quickly unravelled on Sunday, with both Russia and Ukraine accusing each other of thousands of violations despite a temporary pause in fighting for the Orthodox holiday.The 32-hour truce, ordered by Moscow from Saturday evening, had been presented as a humanitarian gesture, with Kyiv agreeing to observe it while warning it would respond to any breaches. Within hours, however, both sides reported continued hostilities across the roughly 1,200-kilometre front line, underlining the fragility of such agreements in a war now in its fifth year.Russia’s defence ministry claimed that Ukrainian forces committed 1,971 violations during the ceasefire window, including artillery fire, tank attacks and more than a thousand drone strikes. It also accused Kyiv of attempting several advances along the front, all of which it said were repelled. Ukraine, in turn, reported even higher figures, saying it had recorded 2,299 breaches, including dozens of assault operations, hundreds of shellings and extensive drone activity.Despite the accusations, there were signs of a limited lull. Ukrainian officials said there were no long-range missile strikes or large-scale aerial bombardments during the truce, a notable shift from the near-daily barrages seen in recent months. On parts of the front, soldiers described conditions as relatively calm, allowing some to attend Easter services in rare moments away from combat.Still, Ukrainian officers said Russian drone strikes continued in several sectors, even where artillery fire had subsided. Kyiv maintained it was responding proportionately, matching “silence to silence and fire to fire”.The ceasefire followed renewed but stalled diplomatic efforts, including US-backed talks that have failed to produce a breakthrough. While the Kremlin described the truce as a step towards a broader settlement, it reiterated its longstanding demands, particularly over territory, which remain unacceptable to Ukraine.The brief pause came after a deadly escalation. Russian drone strikes killed civilians in cities including Odesa and Kherson just hours before the truce began, while both sides reported intercepting large numbers of incoming drones overnight.
