Ukraine, Russia trade mass 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 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.

But as with a similar agreement last year, only relative calm reigned along the 1,200-kilometre front line. "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. 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 on the state-pushed MAX application.

The Russian ministry claimed 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.

However, in a sign that the truce had some effect, the Ukrainian army stressed that it had recorded no long-range Shahed drone attacks, guided aerial bombings or missile strikes. Ukraine has had to deal with near-nightly barrages of hundreds of Russian drones, prompting retaliation from Kyiv.

In northeastern Ukraine's Kharkiv region, Lieutenant Colonel Vasyl Kobziak told AFP on Sunday morning that things were "rather calm" in his sector.

While the 32-year-old officer said the truce had not been "fully" observed, the lull had allowed his soldiers of the 33rd Mechanised Brigade to attend an Easter Sunday mass outside in the freezing forest chill.

"Our comrades have the chance, as you can see, to have their Easter baskets blessed and to feel the warmth and joy of this holiday," he told AFP, referring to the religious tradition of priests blessing food and eggs.

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.

In Russia's 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. In his evening address on Saturday, Zelensky called for a longer ceasefire, insisting the ball was in Moscow's court.

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

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's February 2022 invasion.

The process has stalled further since the outbreak of the war in the Middle East, with Washington's attention having shifted towards Iran.

But even before the Iran war, progress towards a peace deal in Ukraine had been slow, due to differences over the issue of territory. Ukraine has proposed freezing the conflict along the current front lines. But Russia has rejected this, saying it wants the whole of the Donetsk region despite it being partly controlled by Ukraine — a demand Kyiv says is unacceptable.