Key Points
- Russian President Vladimir Putin announced a one-day Easter ceasefire in Ukraine.
- Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy and the Russian defence ministry have said the other side had violated the truce.
- It comes after the US threatened to abandon Russia-Ukraine peace deal efforts unless rapid progress is made.
Russia and Ukraine have blamed each other for breaking a one-day Easter ceasefire declared by Russian President Vladimir Putin, with both sides accusing the other of hundreds of attacks and the Kremlin saying there was no order for an extension.
Putin, who sent thousands of Russian troops into Ukraine in February 2022, said he had ordered his forces to stop all military activity along the front line in the three-year-old war until midnight Moscow time (7am AEST) on Sunday.
The TASS news agency quoted Kremlin spokesperson Dmitry Peskov as saying there was no order from Putin to extend the ceasefire.
In the United States, the state department said it would welcome an extension.
Ukraine's foreign minister Andrii Sybiha said Russia's actions in the coming days would reveal its "true attitude toward US peace efforts" and a proposed 30-day ceasefire.
LISTEN TO
Surprise Russian ceasefire announcement, but Ukraine alleges fighting continues
SBS News
06:17
Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy said Russia was pretending to observe the Easter ceasefire, but had carried out hundreds of artillery attacks on Saturday night, with more on Sunday.
Russia launched 67 assaults on Sunday up until 3am AEST, Zelenskyy wrote on X.
"Either Putin does not have full control over his army, or the situation proves that in Russia, they have no intention of making a genuine move toward ending the war, and are only interested in favourable PR coverage," Zelenskyy posted.
"However, there were no air raid alerts today. Hence, this is a format of ceasefire that has been achieved and that is the easiest to extend," he said, proposing Russia abandon drone and missile strikes on civilian targets for at least 30 days.
If Russia does not agree, it will be proof it intends to continue doing only those things that destroy human lives and prolong the war, he said.
Russia's defence ministry said Ukraine had broken the ceasefire more than 1,000 times, damaging infrastructure and causing civilian deaths.
The ministry said Ukrainian forces had shot at Russian positions 444 times while it had counted more than 900 Ukrainian drone attacks, including on Crimea and the Russian border areas of the Bryansk, Kursk and Belgorod regions.
"As a result, there are deaths and injuries among the civilian population, as well as damage to civilian facilities," the ministry said.
Ukraine's military said earlier that activity on the front line had decreased.
Some Russian military bloggers also said frontline activity had declined substantially.
The battlefield reporters were unable to immediately verify.
US threatens to abandon peace deal efforts
The apparent failure to observe even an Easter ceasefire shows how hard it will be for US President Donald Trump to clinch a lasting peace deal.
The US will walk away from peace efforts unless there are clear signs of progress soon, Trump and his secretary of state, Marco Rubio, said late last week.
Last month, after Ukraine accepted Trump's proposal for a 30-day truce, Putin said crucial issues of verification had not been sorted out.
Both Russia and Ukraine have agreed to a moratorium on attacks on energy targets and at sea, which each accuses the other of breaking.
Zelenskyy reiterated Ukraine was willing to extend the ceasefire for 30 days but said if Russia kept fighting on Sunday, so would Ukraine.
"The Ukrainian army is acting — and will continue to act — in a fully symmetrical manner," he wrote on X.
Vladimir Putin (right) announced the ceasefire in a televised meeting with Russia's chief of general staff, Valery Gerasimov (left). Source: AAP / Vyacheslav Prokofiev / Sputnik / Kremlin Pool / EPA
Announcing the ceasefire before heading to an Orthodox Easter service, Putin said the truce would show whether or not Ukraine was ready or able to implement peace.
Easter falls on the same day this year for Orthodox and Western churches, and Zelenskyy urged Ukrainians not to give up hope that peace will one day return.
"We know what we are defending. We know what we are fighting for," he said in a social media video, wearing a traditional Ukrainian embroidered shirt and standing in front of Saint Sophia's Cathedral in Kyiv.
