Ukraine says Russia broke its own Easter ceasefire vow

KYIV, Ukraine — Serhiy Hnezdilov spent Saturday night in a ceasefire that wasn’t. Fighting for Ukraine in the eastern Donetsk region, he said he could hear explosions throughout the night, despite the Kremlin’s promise of a truce for Easter.

Hnezdilov, 24, said Ukrainian soldiers were told to report to their superiors all violations of the ceasefire, which was abruptly declared by President Vladimir Putin of Russia on Saturday afternoon and later agreed to halfheartedly by skeptical Ukrainian officials. In addition, Hnezdilov said, some planned Ukrainian military operations had been put on hold.

“I don’t even know how to assess this so-called ceasefire,” said Hnezdilov, whose 56th Mariupol Brigade is fighting near the town of Chasiv Yar. “To me, it was just words from Putin like, ‘We won’t shoot,’ but they are shooting,” he said in an interview Sunday, adding: “Every so-called ceasefire with the Russians gets violated by the Russians immediately.”

The truce, announced as lasting 30 hours, appeared to be a gambit by Putin to show the United States that Russia was serious about peace.

On Friday, the Trump administration indicated that if it could not make progress in ending the war, it would walk away. What that meant was unclear. Would the United States stop leading peace negotiations, yet continue to supply Ukraine with weapons and military intelligence? Or would Washington wash its hands of the war and abandon Ukraine?

Without U.S. help, Ukraine’s ability to continue fighting is tenuous. As the military aid initially authorized under President Joe Biden slows to a trickle, Ukraine has been able to win more military help from Europe. But it also depends on the United States for essential military intelligence and targeting data, and for the Patriot missiles used in its air defenses.

The truce — announced by Putin less than two hours before it was to start at 6 p.m. local time Saturday — did mean a quieter night.

But both Ukraine and Russia claimed Sunday that attacks had continued, with the other side responsible for violating the ceasefire.

Russian troops fired their artillery almost 1,700 times between 6 p.m. Saturday and 8 p.m. Sunday, President Volodymyr Zelenskyy of Ukraine said in social media posts. He said the Russians had launched 86 infantry assaults and used drones about 1,000 times. Zelenskyy also said Russian soldiers ambushed Ukrainian troops near the eastern city of Toretsk, adding, “There are dead.”

Russia’s Defense Ministry said Sunday that its forces had observed the truce, while accusing Ukraine of violating it with drones and nighttime attacks in the Donetsk region. The ministry provided its own numbers: Ukraine had fired 444 times from guns and mortars and carried out 900 drone strikes.

It was not possible to confirm independently the claims by either side.

Both Kyiv and Moscow said that fighting had continued along the border between Ukraine and the Kursk, Belgorod and Bryansk regions of Russia.

Vlad Krupko, 26, a drone unit commander in eastern Ukraine, said the fighting during the ceasefire was similar to how it had been since Russia launched its full-scale invasion in February 2022. The Russians continued to launch drones and artillery strikes, while his team conducted combat drone flights. “So in reality, there was no ceasefire at all,” he added.

President Donald Trump has made ending the war in Ukraine one of his foreign-policy goals. But his administration has largely echoed Russian talking points so far, saying that occupied parts of Ukraine should be ceded to Russia and that Kyiv should not be able to join NATO. There is no serious talk in the White House or in Congress of sending more military aid to Ukraine. Trump has made his disdain for Zelenskyy clear, as well as his affinity for Putin.

Ukraine is largely at the mercy of whatever the Trump administration decides, if it wants any chance of more American help. When Trump briefly paused both military intelligence and military aid in March, after a public blowup with Zelenskyy in the White House, the loss of military intelligence was felt almost immediately along the front lines.

So Zelenskyy has agreed and agreed, trying to look reasonable compared with Putin. He agreed to a 30-day temporary ceasefire proposed by Trump in March. He agreed to pursue a contentious revenue-sharing minerals deal that could be finalized this week.

By contrast, Putin has not agreed to much of anything concrete during preliminary talks with U.S. officials.

Friday seemed to be a breaking point. U.S. officials made it clear that they were exasperated with Russia’s unwillingness to accept the 30-day ceasefire proposal.

Secretary of State Marco Rubio said the United States could decide within days to “move on” from trying to end the war. Trump said that “if for some reason one of the two parties makes it very difficult,” the United States could decide that “we’re just going to take a pass.”

Only Vice President JD Vance sounded more upbeat, saying that the United States was optimistic about putting an end to the war — although he did not say how.

Then on Saturday afternoon, Putin ordered his forces to “stop all military activity” against Ukraine for 30 hours.

Zelenskyy and other Ukrainian officials expressed skepticism about Putin’s intentions, but eventually, probably mindful of Trump’s desire for a ceasefire, Zelenskyy said Ukrainian troops would do whatever Russian troops did. If they were silent, Ukrainian troops would stop fighting. If Russian troops attacked, so would the Ukrainians.

“Our soldiers are responding everywhere as the enemy deserves,” he said in a social media post Sunday morning.

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In another clear signal to Washington, Zelenskyy reiterated several times over the weekend that Ukraine would like to extend the Easter truce for 30 days. On Sunday, Putin did not extend the Easter ceasefire in Ukraine, the TASS news agency quoted Kremlin spokesperson Dmitry Peskov as saying.

On Sunday, Ukrainian analysts largely dismissed the temporary ceasefire as a public relations stunt. They were much more concerned about what it meant if the U.S. administration pulled out of any role in the peace negotiations.

“This is the big question to us Ukrainians: What do they mean by being out?” asked Volodymyr Dubovyk, the director of the Center for International Studies at Odesa I.I. Mechnikov National University. “Does it actually mean that they are completely ignoring the conflict from now on, if they are out? Or will intelligence sharing still be coming to Ukraine? Will satellite imagery still be coming to Ukraine?”

The minerals deal, if signed, could give Ukraine some kind of leverage to be able to get more U.S. weapons or at least to continue receiving U.S. military intelligence, analysts said.

Easter is one of the most important holidays of the year in Ukraine. On the Thursday before Easter — called Clean Thursday — Ukrainians typically clean their houses. Life grinds to a halt on Good Friday. Spare time is devoted to elaborately decorating eggs and baking special Easter cakes.

But no one in Ukraine seemed to see Putin’s truce offer as a gift. Video posted online Sunday showed Russian drones attacking an evacuation vehicle near the city of Kostiantynivka in Donetsk, injuring the occupants.

On Sunday morning, villagers in Kamyanka in the eastern Kharkiv region attended an Easter Benediction next to the charred remnants of a church that was destroyed during the village’s five months of Russian occupation, which killed about 150 civilians and destroyed homes, shops and farms.

Iryna Trotsko, 52, said in an interview that she would never trust the Russians. “They don’t keep their word or any of the promises they make to us,” she said.