The Japan Times - Russia and Ukraine trade blame over Easter truce, as Trump predicts 'deal'

The 30-hour truce from Saturday, announced by Russia's President Vladimir Putin, had been meant to mark the religious holiday. But Ukraine's President Volodymyr Zelensky said Russia had carried out hundreds of front line attacks.

"The Ukrainian army is acting and will continue to act in an absolutely mirror image" of Russia," he warned.

Later Zelensky said on social media: "The Russian army has violated Putin's ceasefire more than 2,000 times".

"However, there were no air raid alerts today," he added, proposing a halt to "any strikes using long-range drones and missiles on civilian infrastructure for a period of at least 30 days".

He made a similar proposal at the beginning of the weekend in response to Putin's announcement of the Easter truce.

Trump had also made a ceasefire proposal to Russia, which was accepted by Ukraine but rebuffed by Russia.

Trump said on Friday that he would end US efforts to halt the war that started with Russia's February 2022 invasion unless the two sides moved toward an accord.

- 'Hopefully... a deal' -

Then on Sunday, he came out with a new startling announcement.

"Hopefully Russia and Ukraine will make a deal this week," he said in a short message on his Truth Social platform.

"Both will then start to do big business with the United States of America, which is thriving, and make a fortune," he added. The White House did not immediately give any further details on the president's announcement.

Russia, which has called the ceasefire talks "difficult", accused Ukraine of breaching the truce.

Moscow said it had "repelled" Ukrainian assaults and accused Kyiv of launching hundreds of drones and shells, causing civilian casualties.

"Despite the announcement of the Easter truce, Ukrainian units at night made attempts to attack" Russian positions in the Donetsk region, its defence ministry added.

Russian troops had "strictly observed the ceasefire", the ministry insisted.

Rescue services in the eastern town of Kostyantynivka said they had recovered the bodies of a man and a woman from the ruins of building hit the previous day by Russian shelling.

The Russian-appointed mayor of Gorlovka in occupied Donetsk, Ivan Prikhodko, said two civilians had been wounded there.

- 'Fewer guys will die' -

Ukrainian soldiers told AFP that they had noticed a lull in fighting.

A drone unit commander said that Russia's activity had "significantly decreased both in Zaporizhzhia and Kharkiv regions", combat zones in the south and northeast where the unit is active.

"Several assaults were recorded, but those were solitary incidents involving small groups," the commander told AFP, speaking on condition of anonymity.

"Fewer guys (soldiers) will die today."

Russian "artillery is not working. it is quiet compared to a regular day", Sergiy, a junior lieutenant fighting in the Sumy border region, wrote to AFP in a message.

Ukrainian troops "are on the defensive", he added. "If the enemy doesn't move forward, they don't shoot."

AFP journalists monitoring in eastern Ukraine heard fewer explosions than usual and saw no smoke on the horizon.

Putin had announced a truce from 6:00 pm (1500 GMT) Saturday to midnight Sunday Moscow time (2100 GMT), saying it was motivated by "humanitarian reasons".

Zelensky responded that Ukraine was ready to follow suit and proposed extending the truce for 30 days to "give peace a chance".

But he said Sunday that Russia had not responded to the offer.

Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov said that Putin had given no order to extend the truce.

- 'Can't trust Russia' --

In Kyiv, as Easter Sunday bells rang out, people doubted Russia's good faith.

"They've already broken their promise," said 38-year-old Olga Grachova, who works in marketing. "Unfortunately, we cannot trust Russia today."

Natalia, a 41-year-old medic, said of Zelensky's 30-day proposal: "Everything we offer, unfortunately, remains only our offers. Nobody responds to them."

People in Moscow welcomed an Easter truce and hoped for more progress towards an end to the war.

"I think that this awful thing will end at some point, but not soon," said Irina Volkova, a 73-year-old pensioner.

"All is not going well for us in Ukraine," she added. "People are dying, our guys are dying."

burs-tw/jj

M.Yamazaki--JT