In a new post on X, Ukrainian PresidentVolodymyr Zelenskyysaid that Russia had launched 26 assaults from midnight up until midday local time (0900 GMT).
Citing a battlefield update from Gen Oleksandr Syrskyi, Ukraine’s military chief, Zelenskky noted an increase in Russian shelling and the use of kamikaze drones.
“The most active Russian operations this morning have been carried out in the Pokrovsk and Siversk directions,” he wrote in the social media post.
“In these and several other areas of the frontline, Russia continues to use heavy weaponry.”
Zelenskyy added:
Ukraine’sforeign ministry has demanded an apology from the US TV networkFox Newsafter it incorrectly labelledKyivas a Russian city.
Live footage of Ukraine’s Easter service from in Kyiv was shown alongside a service in Moscow attended byVladimir Putin. After initially correctly captioning the Ukraine service as being from “Kyiv, Ukraine”, the on-screen text changed to “Kyiv, Russia”, before being corrected 20 minutes later.
“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 spokesperson for Ukraine’s foreign ministry said.
Easter falls on the same day this year for orthodox and western churches, andVolodymyr Zelenskyyhas urged Ukrainians not to give up hope that peace will one day return.
Here are some of the latest images coming out of the newswires fromUkrainewhere festivities continue despite Russian attacks:
In a new post on X, Ukrainian PresidentVolodymyr Zelenskyysaid that Russia had launched 26 assaults from midnight up until midday local time (0900 GMT).
Citing a battlefield update from Gen Oleksandr Syrskyi, Ukraine’s military chief, Zelenskky noted an increase in Russian shelling and the use of kamikaze drones.
“The most active Russian operations this morning have been carried out in the Pokrovsk and Siversk directions,” he wrote in the social media post.
“In these and several other areas of the frontline, Russia continues to use heavy weaponry.”
Zelenskyy added:
My colleagues Luke Harding and Andrew Roth have filed this report on theUS’s suggestion it could abandon its efforts to broker a permanent ceasefire in Ukraine:
Donald Trumphas said the US is ready to “take a pass” on brokering a peace agreement between Russia andUkraineunless a settlement is reached “very shortly”.
“Now if for some reason one of the two parties makes it very difficult, we’re just going to say: ‘You’re foolish. You’re fools. You’re horrible people’ – and we’re going to just take a pass,” Trump told reporters in Washington. “But hopefully we won’t have to do that.”
Trump declined to give a “specific number of days” for when the US would stop trying to negotiate a truce. “But quickly. We want to get it done.”
Asked whether he was being “played” by Putin, Trump said: “Nobody’s playing me, I’m trying to help.”
Trump’s comments came after the US secretary of state,Marco Rubiosaid the US was ready to abandon its efforts “within days”.
Speaking in Paris on Friday after meeting European and Ukrainian leaders, Rubio said Trump was still interested in a deal. But he added that the US president had many other priorities around the world and was willing to “move on” unless there were signs of progress.
“It is not our war. We didn’t start it,” Rubio said, adding that if a deal were not possible – with both sides still far apart – the US president was “probably at a point where he’s going to say, well, we’re done”. Trump felt “very strongly” about this, he said.
You can read the full story here:
As a reminder,Vladimir Putinoffered no details on how the so-called Easter Truce – which he said would last from 18:00 Moscow time (16:00 BST) on Saturday until midnight on Sunday in Moscow – would be monitored or whether it would cover airstrikes or ongoing ground battles that rage around the clock.
Russia’s defence ministry reportedly said that Ukraine hadbroken the Easter ceasefiredeclared by Vladmir Putin on Saturday more than a thousand times.
The ministry said Ukrainian forces had shot at Russian positions 444 times while it had counted more than 900 Ukrainian drone attacks, Interfax said.
We have not yet been able to independently verify these claims, which have been reported by Russian news agencies.
In the open letter,Andrii Melnykoutlined five steps Friedrich Merz should take during his first 100 days in office. He wants Merz, whose conservative CDU/CSU alliance won February’s federal election, to:
Adopt a coalition resolution on financing arms deliveries toUkraineamounting to at least 0.5 percent of GDP (€21.5bn per year). The funding should go toward the production of advanced weapons in both Germany and Ukraine, he said.
Ensure the same 0.5% commitment to be adopted at the EU and G7 levels, excluding the US.
Announce the immediate delivery of 150 Taurus cruise missiles to Ukraine on 6 May and implement it swiftly.
Push the governing coalition to decide to transfer 30% of the available German fighter jets and helicopters – including Eurofighters and Tornados - from the air force’s inventory to Ukraine.
Show strong leadership in helping Ukraine resist Russian aggression, including adopting “concrete security guarantees” and ensuring the prospect of Ukraine’s accession to Nato “soon becomes a reality” (despite opposition from the Trump administration)
Germany has been one of Ukraine’s main military backers, granting roughly €7.1bn (£6bn; $8bn) in military assistance in 2024 alone.
But, fearing an escalation of the conflict, former German chancellor Olaf Scholzdid not supply Taurus missiles, which have a range of around 500km (300 miles), despite Kyiv’s repeated requests.
In an unusual move, Ukrainian diplomatAndrii Melnykhas written an open letter to the prospective German chancellorFriedrich Merz, calling on him to fulfill his campaign promise and deliver the urgently needed 150 Taurus cruise missiles to Ukraine.
Writing in the the German newspaper Die Welt, Melnyk, who served as Ukraine’s ambassador to Germany from December 2014 to October 2022 and is now Ukraine’s ambassador to Brazil, said:
Commenting on the Taurus missiles, he added:
Several blasts ripped through Russian-controlledDonetskin eastern Ukraine this morning, the Russian state-owned news agency Tassreported.
A source in the local “operative services” told the news agency that the Ukrainian armed forces had "delivered a strike” in theBudennovskydistrict of the city.
“The strike has been (registered) near the Elevatornaya (Street). Details are being determined,” the source said. We have not yet been able to independently verify these claims.
The reports come a day afterVladimir Putinordered his forces to “stop all military activity” in Ukraine for a 30-hour truce, to which Kyiv said it would also adhere.
However,Volodymyr Zelenskyysubsequently said that Russian artillery fire had not stopped and its attempt to seize territory continued.
Luke Harding, a Guardian foreign correspondent,writes thatthe ceasefire declaration came amid reports that the White House was ready to recognise Russian control ofCrimeaas part of a broad US proposal to end the war in Ukraine.
Here is an extract from his piece:
Welcome back to our live coverage of Russia’s war onUkraine.
Ukrainian PresidentVolodymyr Zelenskyyhas accused Russia of creating a mere “impression” of a ceasefire as Moscow reportedly continued shelling areas of Ukraine overnight.
In a televised meeting with his commander-in-chief on Saturday, Russian PresidentVladimir Putinsaidthe temporary ceasefire would last from 6pm Moscow time (4pm BST) on Saturday until midnight (10pm BST) on Sunday.
Putin claimed he had ordered his forces to “stop all military activity” along the frontline during this window for “humanitarian reasons”.
But Zelenskyy said there had been hundreds of instances of shelling on Saturday evening. Early on Sunday, Ukrainian forces reported 59 instances of shelling and five assault attempts along the frontline, he said.
In a post on X, the Ukrainian president wrote:
Previous attempts at holding ceasefires for Easter in April 2022 and Orthodox Christmas in January 2023 were not implemented after both sides failed to agree on them.
In some other developments:
On Saturday, Ukraine and Russia said they had each returned 246 soldiers being held as prisoners of war, in a swap mediated by the UAE. Volodymyr Zelenskyy said the total number of returned POWs now stood at 4,552. The UAE’s foreign ministry said 31 injured Ukrainians and 15 wounded Russians were also exchanged.
Moscow’s troops have driven out Ukrainian forces from nearly all of the Kursk region, Russia’s chief of general staff,Valery Gerasimov, has said. “The bulk of the area where the invasion took place has now been cleared,” Gerasimov told Putin in a televised meeting. “It’s 1,260 sq km, 99.5%.” The RIA state news agency cited the Russian defence ministry as saying on Saturday that Russian troops recaptured the village ofOleshnyain Kursk.
Russian troops are “solidifying their presence” in the village ofKalynovein the Donetsk region,the Kyiv Independent reported, citing the DeepState military blog.The publication reports, sourcing DeepState, that Russian forces are deploying infantry and establishing logistical routes and communication lines in Kalynove.