Russia violates Easter ceasefire almost 11,000 times, Ukraine says
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Russia violated an Orthodox Easter ceasefire 10,721 times during a 32-hour period from 4 p.m. Moscow time on April 11 through the end of April 12, Ukraine's General Staff said.
Russian President Vladimir Putin announced the ceasefire on April 9 after rejecting Kyiv's proposal for a truce put forward in late March.
In response, Ukraine said it would also observe the ceasefire but would retaliate if it was breached. Russia breached the ceasefire 469 times in the first six hours alone, according to Ukraine's military.
Stephen Hall, an assistant professor of Russian and post-Soviet politics at the University of Bath, said Putin announced the ceasefire to maintain control of the narrative in the war against Ukraine and to portray himself as a peacemaker.
"It looks good to Donald Trump that Putin does still want peace, that he is desperate to try and find peace and all of these processes. It is also a way to control the narrative, having completely ignored Zelensky," Hall told the Kyiv Independent.
"This is also a way to perhaps maintain his soft power links, as it were, to traditionalists because it is Easter — an important date in Christianity — and Putin is, of course, the most Christian man in the world," Hall added.
According to Hall, Russia's recent move does not indicate a pursuit of peace, but amount to "smoke and mirrors" aimed at maintaining control over the narrative, something he said the Kremlin is "very good at."
According to the General Staff, no missile, aviation, or long-range drone strikes such as Shahed-type attacks were recorded during the ceasefire period. However, Russian forces carried out 1,567 artillery attacks, 119 assault actions, and 9,035 short-range kamikaze drone attacks.
Of the drone strikes, 2,205 involved systems such as Italmas, Lancet, and Molniya drones, while 6,830 were FPV drone attacks, the General Staff said.
Over the past day alone, 107 combat clashes were recorded along the front line.
In the border area between Russia and Ukraine's Sumy Oblast, as well as in the Kursk sector of the front line, 20 shelling incidents and one offensive operation were recorded. In Kharkiv Oblast, Russian troops carried out nearly 20 offensive operations near populated areas, including Kupiansk, Vovchansk, and Lyman.
In Donetsk Oblast, Ukrainian forces repelled six Russian attempts to advance in the Sloviansk sector near Rai-Oleksandrivka and surrounding areas. One attack was recorded in the Kramatorsk sector, while 15 assaults took place near Kostiantynivka.
The heaviest fighting continued in the Pokrovsk direction, where Ukrainian forces repelled 28 Russian assaults.
Russian forces carried out five attacks in the Oleksandrivka sector, at the junction of Zaporizhzhia, Donetsk, and Dnipropetrovsk oblasts, and 12 attacks in the Huliaipole sector of Zaporizhzhia Oblast.
The General Staff said Ukrainian forces continue to repel Russian attacks across the front line.
Russian authorities, for their part, accused Ukraine of breaching the ceasefire, alleging that Ukrainian drone strikes hit targets in Russia's Kursk and Belgorod oblasts and left five people injured.
The Kyiv Independent could not independently verify the claims.
In the April 11 evening address, President Volodymyr Zelensky said Ukraine remains open to extending the ceasefire, but warned that any Russian violations would be met with a "proportional response."
