US President Donald Trump has said he hopes Russia and Ukraine “will make a deal this week” as Vladimir Putin’s “Easter truce” expired, with the two countries blaming each other for breaking it.
The Russian leader said he had ordered his forces to stop all military activity along the frontline for 30 hours from 6pm on Saturday (4pm UK time) until midnight on Sunday (10pm UK time).
But on Sunday evening, Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy said the Russian army had “violated Putin‘s ceasefire more than 2,000 times” during the day.
Mr Trump wrote on his Truth Social platform that “hopefully Russia and Ukraine will make a deal this week” and both will then “start to do big business” with the US.
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Mr Zelenskyy accused Russia of “failing” to “uphold its own promise of ceasefire” and wrote on X: “Either Putin does not have full control over his army, or the situation proves that in Russia, they have no intention of making a genuine move toward ending the war, and are only interested in favourable PR coverage.”
Mr Zelenskyy proposed that Russia “cease any strikes using long-range drones and missiles on civilian infrastructure for a period of at least 30 days, with the possibility of extension”.
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And he added that if Russia does not agree to such a step “it will be proof that it intends to continue doing only those things which destroy human lives and prolong the war”.
He insisted that the Ukrainian army was “acting – and will continue to act – in a fully symmetrical manner” and this Easter has “clearly demonstrated that the only source of this war, and the reason it drags on, is Russia”.
“We are ready to move toward peace and a full, unconditional, and honest ceasefire that could last for at least 30 days – but there has been no response from Russia on that so far.”
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What has Moscow said?
Russia’s defence ministry said Ukraine had broken the ceasefire more than 1,000 times, damaging infrastructure and causing civilian deaths.
According to the ministry, Ukrainian forces had shot at Russian positions 444 times while there had been more than 900 Ukrainian drone attacks, including on Crimea and the Russian border areas of the Bryansk, Kursk and Belgorod regions.
“As a result, there are deaths and injuries among the civilian population, as well as damage to civilian facilities,” the ministry said.
The Kremlin said there was no order for the ceasefire to be extended.
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Mr Trump and his secretary of state Marco Rubio warned on Friday that the US will walk away from efforts to broker a peace deal unless there are clear signs of progress soon.
The US president said negotiations between Ukraine and Russia were “coming to a head” and he insisted that neither side is “playing” him in his push to end the grinding three-year war.
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Last month, Ukraine accepted Mr Trump’s proposal for a 30-day truce.
But Mr Putin refused to back a full 30-day ceasefire, saying crucial issues of verification had not been sorted out. He said he would agree not to target Ukraine’s energy infrastructure.
However, both sides have accused each other of breaking the moratorium on attacks on energy targets and at sea.
