Ukraine, Russia trade Easter truce breach barbs

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 halt to hostilities for the religious holiday, after Russian President Vladimir Putin agreed on Thursday to a proposal made by Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky more than a week before.

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

A firefighter works at the site of a residential building which was hit during overnight Russian drone strikes, amid Russia's attack on Ukraine, in Odesa, Ukraine, on Saturday. Reuters

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

In turn, Russia's defence 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.

People cry as they hold hold photos of their missed relatives as Ukrainian soldiers return from captivity during a POW exchange between Russia and Ukraine in Chernyhiv region, Ukraine, on Saturday. AP

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.

Agence France-Presse