Ukraine and Russia Accuse Each Other of Violations During Orthodox Easter Truce

Ukraine and Russia accused each other on Sunday of violating a truce in place for Orthodox Easter thousands of times, as the war dragged on into its fifth year.

Both sides had agreed to observe the ceasefire for the religious holiday, with Russian President Vladimir Putin on Thursday ordering the truce more than a week after Ukrainian counterpart Volodymyr Zelensky proposed a halt to hostilities.

“As of 7:00 a.m. on 12 April, 2,299 ceasefire violations were recorded. Specifically: 28 enemy assault actions, 479 enemy shelling, 747 strikes by attack drones… and 1,045 strikes by FPV drones,” the Ukrainian military’s general staff said in a post on Facebook.

“There were no missile strikes, guided aerial bomb strikes, or Shahed-type UAV strikes,” it added.

In turn, Russia’s defense ministry accused Kyiv of nearly 2,000 breaches of its own.

“A total of 1,971 ceasefire violations by units of the Ukrainian armed forces were recorded between 4:00 pm Moscow time on April 12 and 8:00 am on April 12,” the ministry said, as reported by the TASS news agency.

The Russian ministry said Kyiv had fired 258 times using artillery or tanks, carried out 1,329 FPV drone strikes, and dropped “various types of munitions” on 375 occasions, notably via drones.

Moscow also accused the Ukrainian military of launching “three nighttime attacks” against Russian positions and also “four attempts to advance” along the front line, while claiming to have thwarted each.

The truce had been due to last for 32 hours, from 4:00 pm (1300 GMT) on Saturday until the end of the day on Sunday, according to the Kremlin.

A similar ceasefire was announced in Ukraine for Orthodox Easter last year, only for both sides to accuse each other of numerous violations.