Vladimir Putin and Moscow Mayor Sergey Sobyanin during the celebration of Orthodox Easter at the Christ the Saviour Cathedral, Moscow, April 19, 2025 (Getty)

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Map: Institute for the Study of War

UPDATE 1730 GMT:

Vladimir Putin has given no orders to extend his “Easter ceasefire” beyond midnight, says Kremlin spokesperson Dmitry Peskov.

“There were no other orders,” Peskov said when asked about the possibility of an extension.

Czech Foreign Minister Jan Lipavský said of Putin’s “ceasefire” proclamation:

It’s like going on a hunger strike between breakfast and lunch and secretly eating candy.

We see that the attacks are continuing. Ukraine reports that there have been a number of attacks, so the ceasefire declared in this way is more of a media stunt than reality.

In one incident, Russian forces targeted a Ukrainian volunteer’s vehicle with three first-person-view drones while he was evacuating civilians in the Donetsk region in eastern Ukraine.

Yevhen Tkachov was moving residents from the village of Zoria, south of Kramatorsk, when they were targeted by the first drone.

“I turned on the emergency lights, got out of the car, and started waving my arms to show that I was a civilian,” he said. “Despite that, the drone struck just half a meter from my car. I motioned for the two cars behind me to go ahead, but I couldn’t drive myself anymore because my car wouldn’t start.

Tkachov and two civilians in the vehicle with him took cover in nearby bushes as a second FPV drone circled overhead and struck meters away, wounding one evacuee with shrapnel. A third drone then destroyed their car before they were rescued by a chaplain.

UPDATE 1050 GMT:

At least three civilians have been killed and nine injured by Russian attacks across Ukraine over the past day.

Two people were slain and five injured in 18 Russian shellings of settlements in the Donetsk region in eastern Ukraine.

One was killed and at least four injured in the Kherson region in the south, with attacks after Vladimir Putin’s alleged “ceasefire” came into effect.

UPDATE 1042 GMT:

Ukraine President Volodymyr Zelensky has updated on Russian attacks during Vladimir Putin’s 30-hour Easter “ceasefire”.

Zelensky reported an increase in Russian shelling and the use of kamikaze drones since 10 a.m. The number of first-person-view drones has been “doubling”.

Russian forces carried out 26 assaults between midnight and noon, with the most activity in the Pokrovsk and Siversk directions in the Donetsk region in eastern Ukraine.

We are documenting every Russian violation of its self-declared commitment to a full ceasefire for the Easter period and are prepared to provide the necessary information to our partners

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.

ORIGINAL ENTRY: Russia’s attacks across Ukraine continued on Easter Sunday, despite Vladimir Putin’s declaration of a 30-hour ceasefire.

Putin said Moscow’s operations would stop at 6 p.m. local time. However, Ukraine President Volodymyr Zelensky, after a briefing from military commander-in-chief Gen. Oleksandr Syrskyi, reported 387 shellings, 19 ground assaults, and 290 uses of drones between 6 p.m. and midnight.

Zelensky updated on Easter morning that there were dozens of drone strikes, 59 shellings, and five assaults between midnight and 6 a.m.

“The Russian army is attempting to create the general impression of a ceasefire, while in some areas still continuing isolated attempts to advance and inflict losses on Ukraine,” Zelensky summarized.

He noted that before Putin’s announcement, the Kremlin had rejected Ukraine and US proposals for a full interim ceasefire. On Thursday, Moscow did not extend its acceptance of a pause in strikes on energy infrastructure — which it had already broken with daily, deadly drone and missile strikes — and it had rebuffed a Ukraine-US agreement to halt assaults in and from the Black Sea.

Zelensky posted in an Easter message to the nation:

May evil’s hour end. May the day of life arrive. The day of peace. The day of Ukraine. The day that lasts for centuries. And we will be able to come together again. At one table. On a peaceful Easter.