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

Ukraine has proposed Russia abandon drone and missile strikes on civilian infrastructure for a minimum of 30 days, president Volodymyr Zelensky mentioned.

“If Russia doesn’t comply with such a step, will probably be proof that it intends to proceed doing solely these issues which destroy human lives and delay the conflict,” Mr Zelensky mentioned on X.

Volodymyr Zelensky has mentioned that regardless of Ukraine declaring a symmetrical method to Russian actions, “the development of accelerating the usage of heavy weaponry by Russian forces continues.”

The Ukrainian president added, nevertheless, that it was “a superb factor, a minimum of, that there have been no air raid sirens.”

The US State Division hsd mentioned it will welcome the extension past Sunday of a one-day Easter ceasefire declared by Vladimir Putin even because the Kremlin mentioned earlier there was no order for an extension.

“We’ve seen President Putin’s announcement of a brief ceasefire attributable to Easter. We stay dedicated to reaching a full and complete ceasefire,” a State Division spokesperson mentioned in an emailed assertion on Sunday.

“As we assess their seriousness on this occasion, we might welcome it extending past Sunday.”

Russia’s Protection Ministry accused Ukrainian forces of in a single day assaults within the Donetsk area regardless of the ceasefire.

It mentioned Ukraine had despatched 48 drones into Russian territory. In response to the ministry, there have been “lifeless and wounded among the many civilian inhabitants,” with out giving particulars.

It claimed Russian troops had strictly noticed the truce.

Russia-installed officers within the partially occupied Ukrainian area of Kherson additionally mentioned Ukrainian forces had launched assaults.

Painful as it’s to recall at this juncture, it was not so very way back that Donald Trump – as candidate after which as president-elect – bragged that he might end the war in Ukraine “in a day” – or, simply to stress the spurious precision and seriousness of his outlandish declare, “within 24 hours”. Maybe the president was talking figuratively, in spite of everything.

Since he took energy virtually 100 days in the past, it’s truthful to say that progress has been gradual, and that what little has been achieved by the varied rounds of peace talks – typically with Ukraine cruelly absent – has not been sustained.

Even Mr Trump has declared himself “very angry” and “pissed off” on the delays, which have normally been attributable to Russia taking part in for time in a reasonably blatant method. But that was a month in the past, and even a menace (which turned out to be empty) to sanction Russia’s oil export commerce did not push Moscow alongside the trail in direction of peace.

Russia’s President Vladimir Putin has not issued an order to increase the Easter ceasefire in Ukraine, TASS information company quoted Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov as saying on Sunday.

The ceasefire expires at midnight (10pm BST) on Sunday.

Volodymyr Zelensky has mentioned Vladimir Putin’s declaration of an Easter ‘ceasefire’ has confirmed “empty” after Russia launched a whole lot of assaults at Ukraine as we speak.

In a put up on X, the Ukrainian president mentioned: “Sadly, the development of accelerating the usage of heavy weaponry by Russian forces continues. From the start of the day till 4pm, there have been a complete of 46 Russian assaults throughout varied instructions and 901 situations of shelling, 448 of which concerned heavy weaponry. Greater than 400 circumstances of FPV drone use by Russians have already been documented.

“The very best degree of Russian fight exercise this Easter is within the Pokrovsk route. Putin’s phrases a couple of ‘ceasefire’ have additionally confirmed empty within the Kursk area, the Siversk route, and different instructions within the Donetsk area.”

Political correspondent Archie Mitchell experiences: