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- A gesture of goodwill: the Ukrainian Armed Forces violated the Easter truce several thousand times
A gesture of goodwill: the Ukrainian Armed Forces violated the Easter truce several thousand times
Despite Vladimir Zelensky's assurances, the Ukrainian Armed Forces did not observe the Easter truce. On Sunday night alone, the Russian military recorded almost 2,000 violations of the ceasefire. And although there were no rocket attacks or attacks by heavy drones, Ukrainian formations opened fire on the ground. Experts note that the agreement of the head of the Kiev regime to a truce was a formality, and the Ukrainian side once again showed its inability to negotiate.
How the Ukrainian side violated the ceasefire
From exactly 16:00 on April 11, when the truce announced by the President of the Russian Federation came into force, all groups of Russian troops stopped firing. The units remained in their previously occupied positions.
According to the Ministry of Defense, formations of the Armed Forces of Ukraine attacked the positions of the Russian Armed Forces three times on Sunday night — from the Pokrovsky area in the direction of the settlements of Guy (twice) and Otradnoye, Dnipropetrovsk region. All attacks were repelled, the ministry said.
In addition, Russian troops thwarted four attempts by the enemy to advance to their positions — in the areas of Novaya Sich (twice) and Kondratovka, Sumy region, as well as the settlement of Kaleniki, Donetsk People's Republic. As of Sunday, the Russian military recorded almost 2,000 violations of the ceasefire regime by units of the Armed Forces of Ukraine.
The Easter truce is a humanitarian gesture on the part of the Supreme Commander, presidential spokesman Dmitry Peskov said on Sunday. He noted that Easter has a special significance for the peoples of Russia and Ukraine.
At the same time, according to the Kremlin's official representative, the Russian army remains to liberate 17-18% of the territory of the DPR. Peskov added that Russian troops continue to advance.
Vladimir Putin announced the Easter truce on April 9. The head of the Russian Defense Ministry, Andrei Belousov, and the Chief of the General Staff of the Armed Forces of the Russian Federation, Valery Gerasimov, were instructed to stop the fighting. The ceasefire lasted until the end of the day on April 12.
Vladimir Zelensky said that the Ukrainian authorities are ready for mirror measures. And on the evening of April 11, he called for an extension of the truce for the period after Easter.
"Zelensky formally supported the truce, but the armed formations of the Kiev regime on the ground did not always observe it," Lieutenant Colonel Roman Shkurlatov, chairman of the Officers of Russia public organization and deputy commander of the BARS—Kursk volunteer brigade for military and political work, told Izvestia. — Admittedly, there were no global strikes. Strategic attack drones did not hit the energy sector during the truce period. But the front continued to live its life.
Roman Shkurlatov said that, for example, in the Kursk region, the border area was shelled, including by artillery. FPV drones were flying. At the tactical level, the truce on the part of the enemy was not respected.
In his opinion, the violation of the truce by the Ukrainian Armed Forces is due to the fact that Zelensky formally supported it. Apparently, no relevant orders were given to the troops.
"Relevant statements were made at the political level, including to save face in front of Western sponsors," Roman Shkurlatov noted. — If Russia had declared a truce, and Ukraine had rejected it, it would not have been very correct from a political point of view for Kiev. Therefore, the Kiev regime supported him, and the unspoken instructions "fight as you fought" went down.
According to military expert Viktor Litovkin, the Ukrainian authorities have once again shown themselves to be an incompetent party whose statements cannot be trusted.:
— These are people without honor and conscience. So when they say they're going to mirror it, it's all a lie. You can never believe in it. It is impossible to expect them to observe the truce. They didn't observe last year, why would they observe this year?
The expert noted that in Russia, the truce was formalized by presidential decree, orders from the Minister of Defense and the Chief of the General Staff. On the Ukrainian side, there was only Zelensky's statement.
— It showed that it is impossible to negotiate with these people. They have no responsibility for their words, no decency," Viktor Litovkin concluded.
For the first time, the Russian side announced a truce for Christmas 2023 — from 12:00 on January 6 to 0:00 on January 8. The Kiev regime did not comply with it.
The next time Moscow announced a cease—fire on the eve of Easter in 2025, from 18:00 on April 19 to 0:00 on April 21. All groups of the Russian Armed Forces remained on the occupied borders and did not open fire. At the same time, the Ukrainian Armed Forces, according to the Russian Defense Ministry, conducted artillery fire and drone strikes against Russian military positions and civilian targets in the border areas of the Belgorod, Bryansk, Kursk regions and Crimea during the truce.
Putin announced another truce on the eve of the 80th anniversary of Victory in the Great Patriotic War from May 8 to 11, 2025. During the period when Russian troops observed the ceasefire, the Ukrainian Armed Forces tried four times to break through the state border of the Russian Federation in the Kursk and Belgorod regions. They also launched 15 attacks and one reconnaissance mission in the areas of Novoegorovka in the Luhansk People's Republic, as well as in the areas of Lipovoye, Redkodub, Dzerzhinsk, Romanovka, Mirolyubovka, Novoolenovka, Elizavetovka, Ulyanovsk, Troitskoye, Novoaleksandrovka, Alekseevka and Veseloe in the Donetsk People's Republic.
According to the Russian Defense Ministry, at that time, Ukrainian units fired 1,455 times at positions of Russian troops from barrel artillery, tanks and mortars, 23 times using MLRS. Ukrainian drones carried out 3,502 strikes. In total, according to the ministry, 5,026 violations of the ceasefire regime were recorded during the truce.
Russia-Ukraine talks and Dmitriev's visit to the United States
The Easter truce announced in the conflict zone, despite the recorded violations by Kiev, may be the starting point for a gradual return to the negotiating track. Even a short-term decrease in the intensity of hostilities can serve as a signal of the parties' readiness to search for political and diplomatic solutions.
At the same time, the negotiation format with the participation of Russia, the United States and Ukraine did not formally collapse, despite the prolonged pause after the round held on February 17-18 in Geneva. As Dmitry Peskov, the press secretary of the President of the Russian Federation, previously stated, there was a break in the dialogue due to the fact that Washington was focusing on other foreign policy areas. He later stressed that Moscow was expecting a new meeting, but the specific dates and venue had not yet been determined.
Participants of the trilateral meeting of the delegations of Russia, the United States and Ukraine in Geneva
Since the beginning of the year, the parties have held three rounds of consultations with the participation of the Americans, but further progress has proved difficult. In Kiev, they adhere to rather alarming assessments. The coming months, Zelensky said, will be tense for Ukraine both on the front line and in the diplomatic sphere. The country's leadership does not hide its concerns about a possible decrease in US involvement in the negotiation process by August, and also recognizes the impact of the successes of the Russian army on the overall dynamics of the situation.
In recent months, Ukraine has been taking a principled position, primarily on the topic of territorial compromises, which is why negotiations are actually stalling, Murad Sadigzade, president of the Center for Middle East Studies, told Izvestia. He believes that changes are possible only if tensions around Iran soon subside. Then the United States will be able to reallocate attention and resources in favor of the Ukrainian direction, whereas now the key structures of American power, including the Pentagon and the State Department, are mainly focused on the situation in the Middle East. However, the outcome of the negotiations in Islamabad is not encouraging.
The key condition for moving to a higher level of negotiations remains the issue of the withdrawal of Ukrainian troops from the territories of Donbass. Without fulfilling this requirement, which Moscow and Washington insist on, the issue of holding a summit meeting is not being considered.
As Dmitry Peskov reported on Sunday, at the moment the territorial differences between Russia and Ukraine are "in a matter of kilometers."
Moscow stresses its readiness to resume dialogue without artificial delays. Earlier, the ambassador-at-large of the Russian Foreign Ministry, Rodion Miroshnik, told Izvestia that the Russian side would not create obstacles to launching the negotiation process and was interested in continuing it.
Against this background, separate contacts between Moscow and Washington remain, but they are not directly related to the Ukrainian settlement. In particular, the visit of the special representative of the President of the Russian Federation Kirill Dmitriev to the United States, as specified in the Kremlin, is devoted exclusively to economic issues, including the sanctions agenda, and does not involve discussion of the conflict in Ukraine.
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