Ukrainian president Volodymyr Zelenskiy said on Sunday that the Russian army is making a pretence of an Easter ceasefire declared by president Vladimir Putin and is continuing overnight attempts to inflict frontline losses on Ukraine.
“In general, as of Easter morning, we can say that the Russian army is trying to create a general impression of a ceasefire, but in some places it does not abandon individual attempts to advance and inflict losses on Ukraine,” Mr Zelenskiy said in a post on social media.
Mr Putin, hours before heading to an Orthodox Easter service late on Saturday, announced the surprise one-day ceasefire, ordering his forces to “stop all military activity” along the front line in the three-year-old war.
The gesture followed a US announcement that it could abandon peace talks within days unless Moscow and Kyiv showed they were serious about negotiating.
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Fighting was to stop from 6pm Moscow time on Saturday until midnight on Sunday night, Mr Putin said.
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But Mr Zelenskiy said there were hundreds of instances of shelling on Saturday evening. Early on Sunday, Ukrainian forces reported 59 instances of shelling and five assault attempts along the front line, he said.
“Russia must fully comply with the conditions of silence,” Mr Zelenskiy said.
He reiterated that Kyiv was willing to extend the ceasefire for 30 days but said that if Russia kept fighting on Sunday, so would Ukraine.
“Ukraine will continue to act in a mirror manner,” he said.
Speaking outside Kyiv’s main church on Easter Sunday, Mr Zelenskiy urged Ukrainians not to give up hope that peace will return to their country. He said Ukraine never loses faith “because this faith is in each other”.
The president, who is Jewish, said faith is “in those who stand next to you. In Ukrainian men, in Ukrainian women”. People have “faith that evil may have its hour but God will have his day”. – Reuters
