Russia had adhered to the ceasefire to some extent, while continuing \u201ccombat operations in certain sectors, including the use of FPV drones and kamikaze drones\u201d, it added.<\/p>\n
Russia\u2019s Defence Ministry accused Kyiv of nearly 2000 breaches of the truce.<\/p>\n
\u201cA total of 1971 ceasefire violations by units of the Ukrainian armed forces were recorded between 4pm Moscow time on April 12 and 8am on April 12,\u201d the ministry said on the state-pushed Max messenger service.<\/p>\n
Kyiv had fired 258 times using artillery or tanks, carried out 1329 FPV drone strikes, and dropped \u201cvarious types of munitions\u201d on 375 occasions, notably via drones, Russia said.<\/p>\n
Moscow also accused the Ukrainian military of launching \u201cthree night-time attacks\u201d against Russian positions and also \u201cfour attempts to advance\u201d along the front line, adding that it had thwarted each one.<\/p>\n
Zelenskyy had called for a longer ceasefire in his evening address on Saturday (local time), saying Ukraine had put the proposal to Russia.<\/p>\n
But in comments aired the next day, the Kremlin\u2019s spokesman Dmitry Peskov rejected any extension unless the Ukrainian leader accepted Russia\u2019s \u201cwell-known\u201d terms.<\/p>\n
\u201cUntil Zelenskyy musters the courage to assume this responsibility, the special military operation will continue after the truce expires,\u201d Peskov added, referring to the war in Ukraine.<\/p>\n
\u2018Holiday joy\u2019 <\/p>\n
In a sign that the truce had some effect, the Ukrainian Army said it had recorded no long-range Shahed drone attacks, guided aerial bombings or missile strikes.<\/p>\n
Ukraine has had to deal with barrages of hundreds of Russian drones on a near-nightly basis, prompting retaliation from Kyiv.<\/p>\n
In northeastern Ukraine\u2019s Kharkiv region, Lieutenant Colonel Vasyl Kobziak told AFP that things were \u201crather calm\u201d in his sector.<\/p>\n
While the 32-year-old officer said the truce had not been \u201cfully\u201d observed, the lull had allowed his soldiers of the 33rd Mechanised Brigade to attend an Easter Sunday mass outside in the freezing forest chill.<\/p>\n
A believer visits a church during the Orthodox Easter celebrations in Donetsk, Russia-controlled Ukraine on April 12, 2026, amid the ongoing Russian-Ukrainian conflict. Photo \/ AFP<\/p>\n
\u201cOur comrades have the chance, as you can see, to have their Easter baskets blessed and to feel the warmth and joy of this holiday,\u201d he told AFP, referring to the religious tradition of priests blessing food and eggs.<\/p>\n
In Russia\u2019s Kursk region, which borders Ukraine, Governor Alexander Khinshtein also accused Kyiv of breaking the ceasefire by attacking a gas station in the town of Lgov with a drone, injuring three people, including a baby.<\/p>\n
Residents in Ukraine\u2019s southern city of Zaporizhzhia were sceptical about Russia\u2019s intentions.<\/p>\n
\u201cI think they\u2019re using this as a cover to reconvene,\u201d 28-year-old manager Vladyslav (no surname given) said.<\/p>\n
\u201cIf we\u2019re going to declare a ceasefire, it shouldn\u2019t be for just one day,\u201d 58-year-old economist Maryna (no surname given) said.<\/p>\n
Frontline freeze <\/p>\n
Recent months have seen several rounds of US-brokered negotiations fail to bring the warring parties closer to an agreement to stop the fighting, triggered by Russia\u2019s February 2022 invasion.<\/p>\n
The process has stalled further since the outbreak of the war in the Middle East, with Washington\u2019s attention having shifted towards Iran.<\/p>\n
But even before the Iran war, progress towards a peace deal in Ukraine had been slow, because of differences over the issue of territory.<\/p>\n
Ukraine has proposed freezing the conflict along the current front lines.<\/p>\n
But Russia has rejected this, saying it wants the whole of the Donetsk region despite it being partly controlled by Ukraine \u2013 a demand Kyiv says is unacceptable.<\/p>\n
The war has cost hundreds of thousands of lives and forced millions to flee their homes, making it Europe\u2019s deadliest conflict since World War II.<\/p>\n
Russia, whose battlefield advances have slowed since last year, has paid a high price in manpower for relatively small territorial gains.<\/p>\n
Moscow occupies just over 19% of Ukraine, most of which was seized during the first weeks of the conflict.<\/p>\n
\u2013 Agence France-Presse<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Russia had adhered to the ceasefire to some extent, while continuing \u201ccombat operations in certain sectors, including the…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":6555,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[2],"tags":[4327,4065,4321,4322,4331,4328,913,4320,4324,4323,4326,4332,4066,3718,4329,4333,5,2376,4061,4325,4330,3920,25,4290,11,2392],"class_list":{"0":"post-6554","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-russia","8":"tag-accused","9":"tag-between","10":"tag-both","11":"tag-claiming","12":"tag-despite","13":"tag-each","14":"tag-easter","15":"tag-ends","16":"tag-expired","17":"tag-formally","18":"tag-having","19":"tag-lull","20":"tag-mark","21":"tag-orthodox","22":"tag-other","23":"tag-raids","24":"tag-russia","25":"tag-russian","26":"tag-russiaukraine","27":"tag-sides","28":"tag-thousands","29":"tag-truce","30":"tag-ukraine","31":"tag-violations","32":"tag-war","33":"tag-with"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/russia\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/6554","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/russia\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/russia\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/russia\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/russia\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=6554"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/russia\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/6554\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/russia\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/6555"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/russia\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=6554"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/russia\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=6554"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/russia\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=6554"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}