Moscow continued to launch attacks on Saturday night and early Sunday despite Russian President Vladimir Putin’s announcement of a 30-hour ceasefire over Easter, Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy has said. The Russian Defence Ministry subsequently also accused Ukrainian forces of doing the same.
Zelenskyy made his announcement on Sunday morning in a post on X: “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 Ukrainian forces recorded 59 Russian shelling incidents, 26 unit assaults across several frontline regions and scores of drone strikes, despite Putin’s announcement of an Easter ceasefire on Saturday.
He urged Russia to fully adhere to its ceasefire conditions and reiterated Ukraine’s offer to extend the truce for 30 days, starting midnight Sunday.
“We will act in accordance with the actual situation on the ground,” the Ukrainian leader added.
The comments were at sharp odds with earlier remarks Zelenskyy made on Saturday night when he noted that some areas were quieter since the ceasefire was announced.
“As soon as Putin gave an order to scale back the attacks, the intensity of strikes and killings dropped. The only source of this war and its prolongation is in Russia,” he wrote on X.
Meanwhile, Russian-installed officials in the partially occupied Ukrainian region of Kherson also accused Ukrainian forces of carrying out attacks during the ceasefire.
According to the Russian Defence Ministry, Ukraine launched hundreds of drone attacks and fired at Russian positions.
On Saturday, Putin announced a unilateral ceasefire that he said would last from 6 pm Moscow time on Saturday to midnight following Easter Sunday.
The Russian president offered no details on how the ceasefire would be monitored or whether it would cover airstrikes or ongoing ground battles that rage around the clock.
His announcement notably came after US President Donald Trump said on Friday that negotiations between Ukraine and Russia are “coming to a head.”
Trump said he could pass on the peace efforts if talks do not progress.
PoWs reunite with loved ones
Meanwhile, authorities in Ukraine said on Saturday that around 277 Ukrainian soldiers had been returned from Russian captivity in the war’s largest exchange.
Most of the Ukrainians freed in the latest prisoner exchange are young people born after 2000, Ukraine’s Coordination Headquarters for the Treatment of Prisoners of War said.
ADVEReadNOWISEMENTOutside a hospital in Ukraine’s Northern Chernihiv region, where recently freed prisoners of war were brought after the exchange at the border, dozens of relatives stood waiting.
Among them was 48-year-old Nataliia Lohvynchuk, who rushed toward the bus the moment it arrived — she hadn’t seen her son in three years; he was captured during the battle for Mariupol in the spring of 2022.
Her son, 23-year-old Ihor Lohvynchuk, had lost about 40 kilograms in captivity.
“It still doesn’t feel real,” he said softly. “We’re not really here yet. We all made it back, but we’re still not here”.
ADVEReadNOWISEMENT“1,102 days in captivity — that’s not five days,” he said.
His mother, overcome with emotion and embracing her son, issued a plea: “We call on the entire world, on every country — help us bring all our boys home.”
On the Russian side, the Ministry of Defense said a total of 246 service members were returned from territory controlled by Kyiv.
Mediated by the United Arab Emirates, Saturday’s exchange is the fourth this year and the 63rd since the start of Russia’s full-scale invasion.
ADVEReadNOWISEMENTAround 4,552 Ukrainians, both military and civilians, have been returned since the outbreak of the Russian war on its neighbour in February 2022.
Thousands more are believed to remain in captivity.