Ukraine's Zelenskyy says Russian attacks ongoing despite Putin's Easter truce
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KYIV: Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy said on Sunday (Apr 20) Russian forces were making a pretence of a one-day Easter ceasefire announced by President Vladimir Putin, continuing overnight attempts to inflict frontline losses on Ukraine.
Putin, hours before heading to an Orthodox Easter service late on Saturday, ordered his forces to "stop all military activity" along the front line in the three-year-old war until midnight Moscow time on Sunday.
The gesture followed a US 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," Zelenskyy said in a post on social media.
But he said there had been hundreds of instances of shelling on Saturday evening.
Early on Sunday, Ukrainian forces reported 59 instances of shelling and five assault attempts along the front line, he added.
Ukraine's military confirmed that activity on the front line had decreased, but that the fighting had not stopped.
"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 Russian-controlled Donetsk in eastern Ukraine, at least three blasts were heard early on Sunday, Russian news agencies reported.
Reuters could not immediately independently verify battlefield reports.
TRUMP'S PEACE PUSH
US President Donald Trump has vowed to bring a swift end to the war, while shifting US policy from firmly supporting Kyiv towards accepting Moscow's account of the conflict.
Last month, after Ukraine accepted Trump's proposal for a 30-day truce but Moscow rejected it, the sides agreed only to limited pauses of attacks on energy targets and at sea, which each accuses the other of breaking.
Zelenskyy reiterated that Kyiv was willing to extend the ceasefire for 30 days but said that if Russia kept fighting on Sunday, so would Ukraine.
"Ukraine will continue to act in a mirror manner," he said.
The European Union reacted cautiously to Putin's ceasefire declaration, saying Moscow could stop the war immediately if it wanted to.
UN spokesman Stephane Dujarric reiterated UN support "for meaningful efforts towards a just, lasting and comprehensive peace that fully upholds Ukraine's sovereignty, independence and territorial integrity".
Easter falls on the same day this year for Orthodox and Western churches, and Zelenskyy urged Ukrainians in an Easter message not to give up hope that peace will return to their country.
"We know what we are defending. We know what we are fighting for. For whom and for whose sake," he said in a social media video, wearing a traditional Ukrainian embroidered shirt and standing in front of Kyiv's main church, Saint Sophia Cathedral.
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