Ukraine-Russia war latest: Putin and Zelensky accuse each other of breaking 30-hour Easter ‘truce’

World affairs editor Sam Kiley writes:

Vladimir Putin has tried to sucker America, where secretary of state Marco Rubio has said the US might “walk away” from Donald Trump’s efforts to secure peace in a matter of days.

Performative frustrations by Trump and his administration over Russia’s real-world rejection of ceasefire terms can be bent into a new narrative that, after the Easter “ceasefire” Ukraine has also been intransigent.

The Trump administration is firmly on Russia’s side when it comes to peace talks. So a sudden unilateral ceasefire offer from the Kremlin will be welcomed by the White House and is part of the duet Putin and Trump are playing. Trump pretends to be frustrated with Putin, Putin strokes away the irritation with a gesture that has no material effect on the war he started – but which Trump blames on Joe Biden, Nato, Europe, Zelensky – anyone and anything but Putin.

Trump and Putin are holding the discussions in the space they have created – where they centre around how much of Ukraine will Russia get and how much of Ukraine’s resources America will extract.

Ukraine wants future talks about how the end the war to centre on how to get Russia out of its territory. Europe’s main concern is protecting Ukraine and developing the military capacity to scare Putin away from his often spoken desires to force former Soviet-sphere nations in eastern Europe back into Russia’s portfolio.

That’s much harder to focus on if, as Putin and Trump want, diplomatic and poetical effort gets misfocussed on quibbles over fake ceasefires rather than winning the war against Russia.

World affairs editor Sam Kiley writes:

That sin, better understood as an international crime leading to more crimes against humanity, was the 2014 invasion of Ukraine, the 2022 full-scale Anschluss against Kyiv, along with the mass murder and deliberate targeting of civilians that followed.

“Between 6pm yesterday and midnight today, there were 387 instances of shelling and 19 assaults by Russian forces. Drones were used by Russians 290 times,” Zelensky said.

Meanwhile Russia claims there were 444 “shooting” attacks by Ukraine after Kyiv said it would also observe the “ceasefire”.

The real issue here is that Putin has got us all talking about who and who violated what about which ceasefire (Ukraine had agreed another one brokered by the US which Russia also agreed to but didn’t sign up for as the Kremlin wanted some tweaks).

A ceasefire of 30 hours, offered by Putin over Easter, should be extended into a recognition of the earlier non-agreement on a 30 day US-brokered ceasefire Keir Starmer and others said. The vain hope is that a down-weapons agreement can be parlayed into a longer-term peace deal.

But Putin has massed close to 70,000 troops on Ukraine’s northern border and may soon launch a renewed assault to carve away (at least) the chunks of Donetsk and Luhansk provinces Russia has already captured. He might equally use those forces to have a go at Kharkiv, Ukraine’s second city, a half-hour drive from the Russian border.

Any ceasefire now gives Russian forces time to re-supply and reposition.

Dozens of Ukrainian civilians gathered outside the ruins of a damaged church in northern Ukraine on Sunday to mark Easter, doubting a ceasefire with Russia might be possible.

In the village of Lukashivka in the Chernihiv region, briefly occupied by Russian forces in 2022, parishioners of the damaged Ascension Church arrived early at a small makeshift wooden church built last year to cater to the needs of the faithful, holding traditional Easter baskets and cakes to have them blessed.

Russia’s defence ministry claimed on Sunday that Ukraine had broken the Easter ceasefire declared by Russian President Vladimir Putin more than a thousand times, inflicting damages to infrastructure and causing civilian deaths.

The ministry said that Ukrainian forces had shot at Russian positions 444 times while it had counted more than 900 Ukrainian drone attacks.

It said the border districts of the Bryansk, Kursk and Belgorod regions have been attacked.

“As a result, there were deaths and injuries among the civilian population, as well as damage to civilian objects,” it said in a statement posted on the Telegram messaging app.

The battlefield reports could not be independently verified.

The defence ministry also said that the Russian military had gained control of Novomikhailivka in eastern Ukraine before the declaration of ceasefire.

Volodymyr Zelensky has accused Russia of stepping up its attacks despite the Easter ceasefire it declared, proving either that Vladimir Putin “does not have full control over his army” or that the truce is merely a PR exercise.

The Ukrainian president wrote on X on Sunday morning that Russia had launched 26 assaults from midnight up until midday local time (9am GMT).

“Either Putin does not have full control over his army, or the situation proves that in Russia, they have no intention of making a genuine move toward ending the war, and are only interested in favourable PR coverage,” Mr Zelensky’s post said.

Ukraine has shot at the positions of Russian troops 444 times despite the Easter ceasefire, Russian news agency IFX has claimed, citing Russia’s defence ministry.

The Russian military had gained control of Novomikhailivka in eastern Ukraine before Vladimir Putin’s declaration of the Easter ceasefire, Russian state news agency RIA has reported, citing Russia’s defence ministry.

Ukraine launched 48 drones at Russia overnight including one in Crimea, Russian state news agency TASS has reported, citing Russia’s defence ministry.

Several blasts ripped through Russian-controlled Donetsk in eastern Ukraine on Sunday amid an Easter ceasefire declared by the Kremlin, Russian news agency reported.

The TASS state news agency, citing local “operative services”, said at least three blasts were heard in the city, which has been under Russia’s control since 2014.

The RIA news agency also said that at least three explosions were heard in the city after 9am (7am BST), citing its reporter in the area.

The battlefield reports could not be immediately independently verified.

Russian President Vladimir Putin announced a surprise one-day ceasefire in Ukraine on Saturday for Easter, but Kyiv said Russian forces continued artillery fire and called instead for an extended true halt to hostilities.