MOSCOW/KYIV (Dispatches) – Russia and Ukraine blamed each other on Sunday for breaking a one-day Easter ceasefire announced by President Vladimir Putin, with both sides accusing the other of carrying out hundreds of attacks.
Putin, who ordered thousands of Russian troops into Ukraine in February 2022, ordered Russian forces to “stop all military activity” along the front line in the three-year-old war until midnight Moscow time (2100 GMT) on Sunday.
Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskiy said Russia was pretending to observe the Easter ceasefire, but had in fact continued hundreds of artillery attacks on Saturday night, with more assaults on Sunday.
Zelenskiy wrote on the X social media platform that Russia had launched 26 assaults from midnight until midday local time (0900 GMT).
“Either Putin does not have full control over his army, or the situation proves that in Russia, they have no intention of making a genuine move toward ending the war, and are only interested in favorable PR coverage,” Zelenskiy’s post said.
Russia’s Defense Ministry said Ukraine had broken the ceasefire more than 1,000 times, inflicting damage to infrastructure and causing some civilian deaths.
The ministry said Ukrainian forces had shot at Russian positions 444 times while it had counted more than 900 Ukrainian drone attacks, including attacks on Crimea and on the Russian border areas of Bryansk, Kursk and Belgorod regions.
“As a result, there are deaths and injuries among the civilian population, as well as damage to civilian facilities,” the ministry said.
Meanwhile, CNN has reported, citing an anonymous source, that Washington is planning one more meeting between U.S. President Donald Trump’s special envoy Steve Witkoff and senior Russian officials to get Moscow on board with its vision for peace in the Ukraine conflict. 
Witkoff has already met with Russian President Vladimir Putin three times this year as the U.S. president tries to broker a ceasefire between Kiev and Moscow.