Ukraine says frontline activity decreases, but continues amid Easter ceasefire

Ukraine’s President Volodymyr Zelenskiy said on Sunday that Ukrainian forces reported 59 instances of shelling and five assault attempts along the front line amid the one-day Easter ceasefire announced by President Vladimir Putin, according to the Reuters news agency.

Putin, hours before heading to an Orthodox Easter service late on Saturday, ordered his forces to “stop all military activity” along the front line until midnight Moscow time (2100 GMT) on Sunday.

Ukraine’s military confirmed that activity on the front line had decreased, but that the fighting had not stopped.

Russia’s move followed a U.S. announcement that it could abandon peace talks within days unless Moscow and Kyiv showed they were serious about negotiating.

“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,” Zelenskiy said in a post on social media.

“It is decreasing, but it hasn’t disappeared. To be honest, we didn’t hold out much hope that this would actually happen,” Viktor Trehubov, a military spokesperson for Ukraine’s eastern front, told the national television.

In the Donetsk city, at least three blasts were heard early on Sunday, Russian news agencies reported.

In the meantime, Russia’s defence ministry said all the military groups “strictly abided by the ceasefire in the military operation zone starting from 1800 on April 19,” according to the RIA news agency.

On Friday, President Donald Trump and Secretary of State Marco Rubio said the United States will walk away from efforts to broker a Russia-Ukraine peace deal unless there are clear signs of progress soon.

“Quickly, we want to get it done,” Trump told reporters at the White House. “Now if for some reason one of the two parties makes it very difficult, we’re just going to say, ‘you’re foolish, you’re fools, you’re horrible people, and we’re going to just take a pass. But hopefully we won’t have to do that,” Trump said.

“We’re not going to continue with this endeavour for weeks and months on end. So we need to determine very quickly now, and I’m talking about a matter of days, whether or not this is doable in the next few weeks,” Rubio said in Paris after meeting European and Ukrainian leaders.

A source familiar with internal deliberations said Trump had made clear to his team he was questioning whether it was worthwhile sticking with the talks to break the impasse. Meanwhile, a U.S. official said Rubio’s comments were reflecting Trump’s frustration with the issue and a concern that this will soon be “Trump’s war.”