Russia and Ukraine blamed each other on Sunday (20) for violating the ceasefire one day during the Easter declared by President Vladimir Putin. Both sides accused the other of performing hundreds of attacks.
Putin, who sent thousands of Russian troops to Ukraine in February 2022, ordered the Russian forces to “interrupt all military activities” along the three-year war front line until midnight Moscow time on Sunday (20).
Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky said Russia was pretending to respect Easter’s ceasefire, but actually continued with hundreds of artillery attacks on Saturday night (19), with more attacks on Sunday (20).
Russia launched 46 midnight attacks until 4 pm, in local time, including heavy weapons, Zelensky wrote on the X X Platform.
“Either Putin has no full control over his army or the situation proves that in Russia they have no intention of making a genuine movement to end the war and are only interested in a favorable public relations coverage,” Zelensky said.
The Russian Ministry of Defense said Ukraine had broken the ceasefire more than 1,000 times, causing damage to the infrastructure and causing some civilian deaths.
The ministry said the Ukrainian forces have fired Russian positions 444 times, while counting more than 900 Ukrainian drone attacks, including attacks on Crimea and Russian border areas of Bryansk, Kursk and Belgorod regions.
“As a result, there are deaths and injuries between the civilian population, as well as damage to civil facilities,” the ministry said.
Ukrainian military personnel said at the beginning of Sunday (20) that the front line activity had decreased. Some Russian military bloggers also said the front line activity had decreased substantially.
Reuters could not immediately verify the reports of the battlefield on both sides.
The apparent failure to respect even an Easter ceasefire shows how difficult it will be for US President Donald Trump to achieve his goal of closing a lasting deal to end what he calls the “blood bath” of the war in Ukraine.
The US will abandon efforts to mediate a peace agreement unless there are clear signs of progress soon, Trump and his secretary of state, Marco Rubio, said last Friday (18).
This content was originally published in Russia and Ukraine accused of violating the ceasefire one day at Easter on CNN Brazil.
Source: CNN Brasil
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