Easter truce collapses as Russia, Ukraine trade blame

Efforts to observe an Orthodox Easter ceasefire between Russia and Ukraine collapsed on Saturday, with both sides accusing each other of hundreds of violations in a conflict that has now lasted four years.

Russian President Vladimir Putin ordered the truce last Thursday, following a proposal by Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky more than a week earlier. The ceasefire was meant to last 32 hours, from 4:00 pm Saturday to the end of Sunday.

But Ukraine’s military reported “469 ceasefire violations,” including air strikes, drone attacks, shelling, and assaults on troop positions and populated areas. Russian strikes killed at least four people and wounded dozens, while Ukraine also launched drones that set fire to an oil depot and damaged buildings in southern Russia.

Despite the violence, both sides carried out a humanitarian gesture, exchanging 175 prisoners of war each, along with 14 civilians. Maksym, a Ukrainian soldier freed after four years in captivity, said, “I still haven’t really realised that I’m finally here — that now I can make my dreams reality, that I am finally free.”

Diplomatic efforts have stalled, hampered by the ongoing war in the Middle East and deep disagreements over territory. Ukraine has proposed freezing the conflict along current frontlines, while Russia demands full control over the Donetsk region — a condition Kyiv rejects.

The war has claimed hundreds of thousands of lives, displaced millions, and remains Europe’s deadliest conflict since World War II. Russian advances have slowed since late 2025, with Moscow controlling just over 19 per cent of Ukraine’s territory, mostly seized in the early weeks of the invasion.