The ceasefire between Russia and Ukraine has expired. Ukrainian President Zelensky has proposed a 30-day halt to shelling of civilian targets. Will Russia agree?
The 30-hour "Easter truce" announced by Russian President Vladimir Putin on Saturday expired tonight. Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov said there were "no new orders" to extend the truce.
Just hours after the ceasefire, airstrike warnings were issued across much of Ukraine. This included the Sumy border region, as well as Kharkiv, Zaporizhia, Donetsk and Dnipro. Explosions were reported in several places. There were no initial reports of damage or casualties.
Mutual accusations of ceasefire violations
Kiev agreed to the proposed ceasefire but reported more than 2,900 ceasefire violations. The exact number is unclear. Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky said Russian shelling and drone attacks had continued. The Ukrainian head of state said Kiev would respond "to silence with silence and attacks with attacks." The Russian army remained most active in the Donetsk region, near Pokrovsk and Siversk, which have long been the scene of fierce fighting.
The Russian news agency Interfax now reports that Moscow is accusing Kiev of 4,900 violations. While Russia insisted it remained in the "previously occupied" regions, it said its defense units had shot down 104 Ukrainian drones in the past 24 hours. Russia has already confirmed that it has resumed hostilities this morning, after the end of the Easter ceasefire.
Zelensky's proposal
Zelensky had earlier proposed a halt to drone and long-range missile attacks on civilian infrastructure for at least 30 days. This would be a compromise after Russia refused to agree to a longer ceasefire.
Ukraine would benefit more from such an agreement than Russia, ARD writes. The Russian armed forces can attack targets anywhere in Ukraine with their arsenal of missiles and drones. Energy infrastructure is only functioning to a limited extent due to the high number of attacks. In addition, residential buildings and other civilian objects are regularly hit. The Ukrainian army also attacks targets in Russia with drones. However, their range and number are so limited that the attacks have no lasting impact on Russia's aggressive war against Ukraine.
Trump "hopes for a deal"
The United States continues to try to reach an agreement between Kiev and Moscow, but so far has not had much success. During his election campaign, Donald Trump promised that he would end the war in Ukraine within 24 hours, ARD recalls. Later, the American president extended the deadline to six months.
"We hope that Russia and Ukraine will make a deal this week", Trump wrote on his social network Truth Social. "Then both countries will start doing business with the United States", the president added. It is unclear whether there is any political motivation for Trump's post and whether he based his statement on information about the negotiations that he has.
Just a few days earlier, on Friday, Trump and his team threatened to withdraw from their mediation role between Russia and Ukraine if there was no progress "very soon."