The army of Ukraine reported Russian drone attacks in several regions overnight, just a few hours after the end of a 30 -hour “Easter truce” declared by Moscow.
Ukraine Air Force has published RAID alerts for the kyiv region, as well as Kherson, Dnipropetrovsk, Cherkasy, Mykolav and Zaporizhzhia.
In the city of southern Mykolav, the mayor Oleksandr Senkevych said that “explosions have been heard”. It was not immediately clear if there were victims.
The army of Russia did not comment on the attacks reported. The truce declared by President Vladimir Putin expired at midnight on Sunday in Moscow (9:00 p.m. GMT). The two parties accused themselves of raping the ceasefire.
In the early hours of Monday, residents of several Ukrainian cities, including the capital kyiv, were urged by local authorities to immediately go to nearby shelters due to the threat of drone strikes.
Ukraine’s Air Force also pointed out a “danger of rocket” for central regions and said that Russia’s aviation was “active in the northeast and east directions”.
Several hours before the expiration of the truce, the spokesperson for the Kremlin, Dmitry Peskov, said that Putin had not given the order to extend it, reported the news agency of the State of Russia, Tass.
The BBC did not independently verify the affirmations of Ukraine and Russia.
US President Donald Trump – who made the end of the war – said late on Sunday that, “let’s hope, Russia and Ukraine will conclude an agreement this week”. He gave no other details.
Russia launched a large -scale invasion of Ukraine on February 24, 2022 and currently controls approximately 20% of the territory of Ukraine, including the South Crimea peninsula annexed by Moscow in 2014.
It is estimated that hundreds of thousands of people – the vast majority of them have been killed or injured on all sides since 2022.
Last month, Moscow appeared with a long list of conditions in response to a complete and unconditional ceasefire that had been agreed by the United States and Ukraine.
On Saturday, President Putin said that there would be an end to all hostilities from 6:00 p.m. Moscow time (3:00 p.m. GMT) Saturday at midnight on Sunday. Kyiv said it would also adhere.
“For this period, I order all military actions to stop,” said Putin in his ad.
“We assume that the Ukrainian side will follow our example. At the same time, our troops must be ready to repel any violations of the truce and the provocations of the enemy, all its aggressive actions.”
However, Ukraine President Volodymyr Zelensky said late Sunday that there were a total of 1,882 cases of Russian bombing, of which 812 implied heavy weapons, according to a report by the commander of the armed forces of Ukraine Oleksandr Syrskyi.
The president said that the heaviest bombings and assaults were in eastern Ukraine near the Pokrovsk, a key logistics center in the Donetsk region.
“The nature of Ukrainian actions will continue to reflect: we will respond to silence with silence, our strikes will be to protect against Russian strikes,” said Zelensky.
Earlier Sunday, he said that “there were no air raid alerts today”, referring to the Russian daily drone and missile strikes against Ukraine.
He proposed “to stop any strike using long -range drones and missiles on civil infrastructure for a period of at least 30 days, with the possibility of an extension”.
Zelensky also said that Putin’s declaration of a truce was equivalent to a “PR” exercise and that his words were “empty”. He accused the Kremlin of trying to create “a general impression of a ceasefire”.
“This Easter has clearly demonstrated that the only source of this war, and the reason why it takes place is Russia,” said the president.
The Russian Defense Ministry insisted that its troops had “strictly observed the ceasefire”.
Meanwhile, Russian Foreign Ministry spokesperson Maria Zakharova accused Ukraine of using Himars missiles applied by the United States during the ceasefire.
The surprise announcement of the ceasefire occurred shortly after we threatened to “take a pass” on the peace negotiations in Russia-Ukraine.
However, a spokesperson for the State Department said on Sunday that Washington was “determined to make a complete and complete ceasefire”.
“It has long passed to stop death and destruction and put an end to this war,” added the spokesperson.
