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 said Ukrainian soldiers were told to report to their superiors all violations of the ceasefire, which was abruptly declared by Russian President Vladimir Putin 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 Sunday.

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.

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 missiles used in 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 artillery almost 1,700 times between 6 p.m. Saturday and 8 p.m. Sunday, Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy said on social media. 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.

This article originally appeared in The New York Times.

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