Volodymyr Zelensky accuses Vladimir Putin of breaking Easter ceasefire more than 64 times

Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky accused Russia on Sunday of creating a false appearance of honouring an Easter ceasefire.

He said Moscow continued to launch attacks overnight after Russian President announced a unilateral temporary truce in . “As of Easter morning, we can say that the Russian army is trying to create a general impression of a ceasefire, but in some places, it does not abandon individual attempts to advance and inflict losses on Ukraine,” Mr Zelensky said in a post on X.

Despite Mr Putin’s declaration of an Easter ceasefire on Saturday, Mr Zelensky said Ukrainian forces had recorded 59 instances of Russian shelling and five assaults by units across various areas along the front line, as well as “dozens” of drone strikes. Mr Zelensky said must fully adhere to the ceasefire conditions and reiterated Ukraine’s offer to extend the truce for 30 days, starting on Sunday at midnight. He said the proposal “remains on the table” and that “we will act in accordance with the actual situation on the ground”.

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Late on Saturday, Russia-installed officials in the partially occupied Ukrainian region of Kherson said Ukrainian forces continued their attacks. “Ukrainian troops continue to strike peaceful cities in the Kherson region, violating the Easter truce,” Moscow-appointed governor Vladimir Saldo wrote on his Telegram channel.

Mr Putin announced the temporary ceasefire, citing humanitarian reasons.

According to the Kremlin, the ceasefire was to last from 6pm Moscow time yesterday (1500 GMT) to midnight (2100 GMT) today, Easter Sunday. Mr Putin offered no details on how the ceasefire would be monitored or whether it would cover airstrikes or ongoing ground battles that rage around the clock.

Meanwhile, a Ukrainian mother and son imprisoned separately by Russian forces met again in a miraculously Easter reunion three years after they last saw each other. Ruslan Vinograd, 22, recognised his mother Margarita when she was loaded on a bus as part of a POW exchange.

Neither knew the fate of the other since they surrendered while defending the Azovstal steel plant, Mariupol in May 2022. They were not allowed to see each other or have any contact in captivity, they said.

She told her son she had dreamed so often of this moment when she was incarcerated in Vladimir Putin’s hellhole prison system. “If this is a dream about you, don’t wake me up,” she told him, as both were wrapped in their national flags after returning to Ukrainian-controlled territory.

Hundreds of Ukrainians have died in Putin’s prison system after being captured. Bursting with emotion, Margarita - an Azov military officer and the only woman released in the Easter swap - said: “My son, we are together again…”

Ruslan - from Ukraine’s 53rd Brigade - said: “I haven’t seen her since we surrendered….I recognised her first. I was already on the bus. She was coming up.”

His mother said: “That’s how I saw it, and I still can’t believe it. I had a lot of such dreams, when you dream that you are hugging….You go out and hug your children, hug your family, and then when you get up at 6am and you realise that it’s a dream and it’s very difficult.

“And today I met him and said, ‘If this is a dream about you, don’t wake me up’.”

A swap between the two sides saw Russia release 277 captive Ukrainians. A total of 246 Russian POWs returned home. Margarita said she had been held in the notorious Olenivka penal colony, where many prisoners were killed, wounded and tortured. She then spent 11 months in a pre-trial detention centre in Donetsk, followed by almost two years in occupied Mariupol.