Ukraine and Russia have accused each other of breaching a 30-hour “Easter truce” announced by Russian President Vladimir Putin on Saturday.
Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky claimed Russian troops had violated the ceasefire “more than 2,000 times” since the start of Sunday.
Russia’s defence ministry said it had “repelled” assaults by Ukraine and accused Kyiv of launching hundreds of drones and shells. The BBC has not independently verified claims by the warring sides.
The truce was set to expire at 22:00 BST (00:00 Moscow time) on Sunday.
Meanwhile, US President Donald Trump – who has been pushing for an end to the war – said that “hopefully Russia and Ukraine will make a deal this week”, without giving further details.
On Saturday, Putin said there would be an end to all hostilities from 16:00 BST on Saturday until 22:00 BST on Sunday. Kyiv said it would also adhere.
“For this period, I order all military actions to cease,” Putin said in his announcement.
“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.”
However, Zelensky said late on Sunday that there was a total of 1,355 cases of Russian shelling, 713 of which involved heavy weaponry according to a report from Commander-in-Chief of the Armed Forces of Ukraine Oleksandr Syrskyi.
But he added that “there were no air raid alerts today”, referring to Russia’s daily drone and missile strikes against Ukraine.
He also proposed “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”.
Earlier, Zelensky said Putin’s declaration of a truce amounted to a “PR” exercise and his words were “empty”. He also accused the Kremlin of trying to create “a general impression of a ceasefire”.
“This Easter has clearly demonstrated that the only source of this war, and the reason it drags on, is Russia,” the president said.
The Russian defence ministry insisted its troops had “strictly observed the ceasefire”.
The surprise “Easter truce” announcement
