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Ukraine issued air raid alerts for Kyiv and the country’s eastern half as blasts shook the city of Mykolaiv early on Monday, authorities said, hours after the one-day Easter “ceasefire” declared by Vladimir Putin came to an end.
Volodymyr Zelenskyy dismissed the Russian president’s unilateral Easter ceasefire declaration as a fake “PR” exercise and said Russian troops had continued their drone and artillery attacks across many parts of the frontline on Sunday.
Washington said it would welcome an extension of the truce, and Zelenskyy reiterated several times Ukraine’s willingness to pause strikes for 30 days in the war.
Putin ordered on Saturday the halt in all military activity along the frontline until midnight Moscow time on Sunday. He did not give orders to extend it.
“There were no other commands,” Russia’s Tass state news agency cited Kremlin’s spokesperson Dmitry Peskov as saying when asked whether the ceasefire could be prolonged.
Some regions in eastern Ukraine were under air raid alerts starting minutes after midnight on Monday, according to data from the Ukrainian air force, with the alerts gradually extending towards the central regions of the country.
“We urge city residents to immediately go to the nearest shelters and remain there until the alert is over,” Kyiv’s military administration said in a social media post at 4.41am local time.
Blasts shook the Ukrainian port city of Mykolaiv, said its mayor, Oleksandr Senkevich. He did not say whether it was air defence systems in operation or bombs landing.
Dnipropetrovsk regional governor Sergiy Lysak said on Telegram: “The Russian army has launched drones at the region.”
He said a home was damaged and a fire broke out at a food establishment but no injuries had been reported.
There were no air raid alerts in Ukraine on Sunday but Ukrainian forces reported nearly 3,000 violations of Russia’s own ceasefire with the heaviest attacks and shelling seen along the Pokrovsk part of the frontline, Zelenskiy said on Monday.
Russia’s Voronezh region bordering Ukraine was also under air raid alerts for two hours, the region’s governor said. Russia’s defence ministry said on Sunday that Ukrainian forces had shot at Russian positions 444 times and it had counted more than 900 Ukrainian drone attacks, with deaths and injuries among the civilian population. Reuters could not independently verify the battlefield reports.
Donald Trump, hoping to clinch a lasting peace deal, struck an optimistic note on Sunday, saying that “hopefully” the two sides would make a deal “this week” to end the conflict.
On Friday, the US president and his secretary of state, Marco Rubio, said the US would walk away from peace efforts without clear signs of progress soon.
Rubio met European leaders in Paris last week to discuss how to end the war. Leaks suggest the White House is pushing for a Kremlin-friendly deal that would freeze the conflict along the existing 1,000km-long frontline.
Trump’s special envoy, Steve Witkoff, has suggested that Crimea and four other Ukrainian provinces could be given to Russia. The US is considering recognising Crimea as Russian and offering Moscow other incentives such as sanctions relief, Bloomberg reported.
The Kremlin insists its original war goals must be achieved. They include the removal of Zelenskyy as Ukraine’s president, as well as the country’s “demilitarisation” and a guarantee of its non-Nato “neutral” status.
Since their disastrous meeting in February in the Oval Office, Zelenskyy has been seeking to improve relations with Washington. Last month, Ukraine accepted a 30-day US ceasefire proposal and it is poised to sign an agreement on Thursday giving the US access to minerals.
There are hints, however, that Zelenskyy is growing frustrated at the White House’s pro-Putin rhetoric. Trump has piled pressure on Ukraine – in effect cutting off military aid and temporarily pausing intelligence sharing – while taking no corresponding measures against Russia.
On Sunday, Zelenskyy appeared to take a swipe at Fox Television Stations after its Live Now network broadcast live coverage of Putin attending an Orthodox Easter service in Moscow with Russia’s patriarch, while incorrectly labelling Kyiv as part of Russia.
“Instead of broadcasting religious service from Moscow, the focus should be on pressuring Moscow to genuinely commit to a full ceasefire and to maintain it for at least 30 days after Easter – to give diplomacy a real chance,” Zelenskyy posted.
Ukraine’s foreign ministry said it had asked for an explanation. “If this was a mistake rather than a deliberate political statement, there should be an apology and an investigation into who made the mistake,” a ministry spokesperson said.
With Reuters
