The Ukrainian president, Volodymyr Zensky, on Sunday, April 20, said that the Russian forces continued their bombings and assaults along the first line despite the fact that Russian President Vladimir Putin announced a Easter letter.
The 30 -hour truce from Saturday night would be the most significant pause in the fight through the three -year conflict. But on Sunday, Zensky accused Russia or had maintained his attacks on the front line after the truce began at 4 pm in Paris on Saturday.
“In several frontline addresses, there have already been 59 cases of Russian bombings and five assaults by the Russian units,” Zensky said on social networks, citing a report or 6:00 am commander of the local time Oleksandr Sylsky. He said that in six hours until midnight on Saturday, there were “387 cases of bombing and 19 assaults by the Russian forces,” with drones “used by the Russians 290 times.”
However, the Ukraine Air Force on Sunday morning did not report any drones or missile attack. “In general, from the morning of Easter, we can affirm that the Russian army is trying to create the general impression of a high fire, while the areas are still isolated attempts to advance and inflict losses to Ukraine,” Zensky’s post said. Ukraine will “symmetrically” respond to any attack, said Zensky.
The officials in the areas of Russian heroes or the east of Ukraine, in turn, accused kyiv’s troops of violating the high fire with bombing of an occupied village and city. A reporter from Ria Novosti’s state news agency in the city of Russian hero of Donetsk reported having heard explosions and having seen a fire on Sunday morning.
Putin’s order to stop all the fight during the Easter weekend occurred after months of efforts from the president of the United States, Donald Trump, so that Moscow and kyiv agree on a high fire. On Friday, Washington also threatened to withdraw from conversations if no progress was made.
‘Give peace a chance’
Putin announced the truce from 6 PM, Moscow time, on Saturday at midnight on Sunday in televised comments, the duration with the Russian chief of general personnel Valery Gerasimov.
Zensky responded by saying that Ukraine would follow his example and propose to extend the truce beyond Sunday. “Russia must live with the conditions of Alto El Fuego. Ukraine’s proposal to implement and extend the high fire for 30 days after midnight tonight remains on the table,” Zensky’s post said Sunday.
He previously suggested that “30 days could give peace a chance”, while indicating that Putin had already rejected a full and unconditional fire of 30 days proposed. Putin had said that the truce for Easter holidays was motivated by “humanitarian reasons.”
While he expected Ukraine to fulfill, he said that Russian troops “must be ready to resist possible truce rapes and enemy’s provocations.” Putin said that truce’s last proposal would show “how sincere is the preparation of the kyiv regime, his desire and his ability to observe agreements and participate in a peace conversations process.”
Captive exchanged
Russia launched its large -scale invasion of neighbor Ukraine in February 2022. The previous attempts to maintain the cessation of high for Easter in April 2022 and Orthodox Christmas in January 2023 were not implemented after both parties could not agree.
In a Easter speech, Zensky said that the meaning of the religious festival was that “evil will retire and life will triumph.” “Today, these words resonate in every Ukrainian heart. And they strengthen our faith, which, despite everything, has not vanished for 1,152 days of large -scale war,” he said.
In kyiv on Sunday, people expressed doubts about whether Russia would observe a truce while welcoming Zensky’s proposal to extend it.
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