Russia says Ukraine violated Easter ceasefire over 1000 times

Russia has accused Ukraine of committing over a thousand violations during the Easter ceasefire declared by Russian President Vladimir Putin.

On Sunday, the Russian Defense Ministry stated that Ukrainian forces committed more than a thousand ceasefire violations, causing damage to infrastructure and civilian casualties.

“In accordance with the order of the Supreme Commander-in-Chief of the Russian Armed Forces [President Vladimir Putin], all [Russian military] groupings in the area of the special military operation strictly observed the ceasefire regime… and remained at previously occupied lines and positions,” the ministry said.

However, Ukrainian forces breached the ceasefire, firing on Russian positions 444 times and launching over 900 drone attacks in border regions, including Bryansk, Kursk, Belgorod, and Crimea, the ministry reported.

“The Ukrainian units fired 444 times from cannons and mortars at the positions of our troops [and] carried out 900 strikes with quadcopter drones,” it added.

“As a result, there were civilian deaths and injuries, as well as damage to civilian infrastructure,” the ministry noted in a statement on Telegram.

Rodion Miroshnik, the Russian Foreign Ministry’s ambassador-at-large overseeing investigations into alleged war crimes by Kyiv, stated earlier that Ukraine had used artillery and drones to attack residential areas in multiple cities and towns, including Donetsk and Lugansk People’s Republics, as well as the Kherson region. He also mentioned that additional reports of ceasefire violations by Ukraine were emerging.

The defense ministry said that the Russian military had gained control of Novomikhailivka in eastern Ukraine before the ceasefire was declared.

Later on Sunday, Russian news agencies reported explosions in Russian-controlled Donetsk despite the Easter ceasefire declared by the Kremlin.

The TASS state news agency, citing local “operative services,” reported that at least three blasts occurred in the city, which has been under Russian control since 2014. The RIA news agency also confirmed that three explosions were heard in the city after 9:00 am (0600 GMT), according to its reporter on the ground.

Meanwhile, US President Donald Trump, who had pledged to end the Ukraine-Russia conflict within 24 hours of taking office, said last week that US negotiators mediating the truce with Moscow would withdraw from peace talks if both parties failed to make sincere efforts to resolve the conflict.

Trump threatens to abandon Ukraine negotiations amid stalled peace talks

US President Donald Trump says the United States would disengage from negotiations aimed at ending the Ukraine-Russia war within a matter of days if the two sides do not make substantial progress.

On Thursday, Trump said Washington would “take a pass” on brokering the peace deal if both sides do not reach an agreement “quickly.”

“Now if for some reason one of the two parties makes it very difficult, we’re just going to say: ‘You’re foolish. You’re fools. You’re horrible people’ – and we’re going to just take a pass,” Trump told reporters in Washington. “But hopefully we won’t have to do that ... but quickly. We want to get it done.”     

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