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Russia: Ukraine violated Easter ceasefire agreement using US-made weapons

The Ukrainian military firing a rocket from a HIMARS near the frontline in the Kherson region in Ukraine.

A spokesperson for Russia’s Ministry of Foreign Affairs has said in a statement that Ukraine violated Easter ceasefire agreement several times using US-made weapons including HIMARS rocket launchers.

In response to the US Department of State’s comment that the Easter ceasefire agreement can be extended, Director of the Information at Russia’s Ministry of Foreign Affairs Maria Zakharova, said, “The Ukraine regime did not abide by the Easter day ceasefire agreement. Furthermore, US-made weapons were used during these attacks”

“The attacks were not incidents but patterns of behavior on the part of Ukraine,” said Zakharova.

Although Ukraine’s President Vladimir Zelensky agreed to the 30-day ceasefire agreement, his country repeatedly targeted Russia’s energy infrastructure, she emphasized.

Russia’s Ministry of Defense had said that President Putin had ordered the armed forces to halt all hostilities from 6:00 pm on Saturday, Moscow time, until midnight on Monday.

He instructed the country’s military to stay on high alert and be ready “to respond to any violations or provocations.” Zelensky answered a few hours later that Ukraine’s forces “will act in a reciprocal way,” the statement said.

“In accordance with the order of the Supreme Commander-in-Chief of the Russian Armed Forces [President Vladimir Putin], all [Russian military] groupings in the area of the special military operation strictly observed the ceasefire regime … and remained at previously occupied lines and positions,” the Ministry said.

Despite the announcement of the Easter ceasefire agreement, Ukrainian forces attempted to assault the positions of the Russian military in the areas of Sukhaya Balka and Bogatyr in Russia’s Donetsk People’s Republic overnight, the statement said.

According to the statement Ukrainian troops used 48 plane-type UAVs against the Russian military, including one in Crimea.

“The Ukrainian units fired 444 times from cannons and mortars at the positions of our troops, [and] carried out 900 strikes with quadcopter drones.”

There were 12 artillery attacks, 33 UAV strikes, and seven munitions drops in the border areas of Bryansk, Kursk, and Belgorod in western Russia, which resulted in “civilian casualties and injuries, as well as damage to civilian facilities,” the statement read.

During their phone call on March 18, Putin accepted his US counterpart Donald Trump’s proposal to introduce a 30-day halt on targeting energy facilities.


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