A temporary weekend truce between Russia and Ukraine for Orthodox Easter quickly unraveled Saturday, with both sides accusing each other of attacks.
Russia claimed Ukraine struck a gas station in the city of Lgov in the border region of Kursk, injuring three people including a one-year-old child who was hit in the head by shrapnel, and the child’s mother.
“This cowardly strike by the enemy took place shortly after 4 p.m. — after the declared Easter ceasefire had already gone into effect,” slammed Alexander Khinshtein, the governor of Russia’s Kursk region, on Telegram.
“It serves as stark proof that these Ukrainian subhumans hold nothing sacred.”
Ukraine has not released an immediate statement about the claims, but Kyiv also slammed Moscow for breaching the Easter truce — something Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky had been pushing for.
Russia violated the ceasefire more than 400 times, firing drones and artillery, Ukraine’s General Staff claimed.
Combat also occurred along the frontlines.
“The cease-fire is not being observed by the Russian side,” said Serhii Kolesnychenko, a communications officer for Ukraine’s 148th Separate Artillery Brigade.
A similar truce also unraveled during Easter last year, when both sides accused the other of hundreds of violations.
Earlier in the day, Zelensky had expressed hope that the weekend truce would lead to a more permanent peace.
“Easter should be a time of silence and safety. A ceasefire on Easter could also become the beginning of real movement toward peace – our side has made the corresponding proposal,” Zelensky wrote on X Saturday morning, before the cease-fire was shattered.
Russian strongman Vladimir Putin agreed Thursday to the 32-hour truce proposed by Zelensky a week earlier – and meant to last from 4 p.m. local time Saturday to midnight on Sunday — halting the four-year war temporarily.
But Moscow strikes killed four civilians and wounded at least 36 others overnight into Saturday — hours before the cease-fire was set to take effect — with the port region of Odesa badly hit. There, a massive drone attack on a residential area sparked fires that killed two people and injured one.
Despite continued tensions, the warring sides managed to exchange 175 prisoners each earlier in the day, according to officials.
Meanwhile Putin’s special envoy Kirill Dmitriev is in the US this weekend meeting members of President Trump’s administration to talk about peace negotiations and US-Russia economic cooperation.
With Post Wires
