Russia and Ukraine accused each other on Sunday, April 12, 2026, of violating a Kremlin-declared Easter ceasefire in Ukraine. The truce, announced from above by Russian President Vladimir Putin, was supposed to halt hostilities for 32 hours over the Orthodox Easter weekend. Instead, the machinery of war kept grinding, with both states trading accusations while civilians and soldiers remained trapped under the same command structures that launched the conflict in the first place.
Who Declared the Pause
Russian President Vladimir Putin on Thursday declared a 32-hour ceasefire over the Orthodox Easter weekend, ordering Russian forces to halt hostilities from 4 p.m. on Saturday until the end of Sunday. Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy promised to abide by the ceasefire, but warned there would be a swift military response to any violations. The language of restraint came wrapped in the language of force: one side issued the order, the other side accepted it conditionally, and both kept their weapons ready.
The General Staff of Ukraine’s armed forces said in a statement Sunday that it had recorded 2,299 ceasefire violations by 7 a.m., including assaults, shelling and small drone launches. It said the use of long-range drones, missiles or guided bombs had not been reported. A Ukrainian military officer told The Associated Press on Saturday that Russian forces had continued to attack their positions. Russia’s Defense Ministry also said Sunday it had recorded 1,971 ceasefire violations by Ukrainian forces, including drone strikes. The head of Russia’s Belgorod region, Vyacheslav Gladkov, said Sunday that rescuers uncovered the bodies of two civilians who were killed in a Ukrainian attack on Saturday afternoon.
What the Truce Looked Like on the Ground
The BBC reported that Ukraine and Russia each accused one another of hundreds of violations of a short ceasefire coinciding with Orthodox Easter celebrations. It said the Ukrainian military reported 2,299 violations since the truce began at 16:00 local time on Saturday, including shooting four unarmed soldiers. The Russian defense ministry said Ukrainian forces had committed 1,971 violations, including three attempted counter-attacks in Dnipropetrovsk region. Zelenskyy said his nation’s forces would respond “symmetrically” to Russian attacks during the ceasefire, calling Easter “a time of peace.” He added that he hoped the truce could be extended beyond Easter to facilitate peace negotiations, but Russia rejected the idea, saying its attacks would resume on Monday.
The BBC also reported that Russian troops mounted 28 attacks and carried out nearly 2,000 drone strikes, but did not use bombs or missiles. It said Russian forces in the north-eastern Kharkiv region executed four Ukrainian soldiers after the ceasefire came into force, according to the local prosecutor’s office, which described the incident as a “grave violation of international humanitarian law.” Ukraine’s military said the troops were shot after being disarmed, calling it “another war crime by Russia.” Ukrainian authorities published what appeared to be an image taken by a drone showing four bodies lying in a clearing. In Ukraine’s northern Sumy region, local authorities said a Russian drone hit an ambulance overnight, injuring three medics. Russia’s defense ministry said Ukraine had launched three overnight attacks on positions in the Pokrovsk area and Otradne in Dnipropetrovsk region, and that four attempts by Ukrainian troops to advance in Sumy and Donetsk were “thwarted.”
What the Powerful Call Peace
Russian President Vladimir Putin announced the Easter ceasefire earlier this week, having previously resisted repeated calls from Ukraine for a temporary cessation of fighting. Zelenskyy said his forces would act in kind. Earlier in the year, Putin acquiesced to a US request to halt strikes on energy infrastructure as Ukraine braced for bitterly cold temperatures. Both Ukrainian and Russian sources accused each other of limited violations in the first few hours of the truce on Saturday before making the much larger claims.
Ukrainian and Russian authorities also announced they had each swapped 175 prisoners of war on Saturday, including seven civilians a piece. That exchange sat beside the ceasefire like another managed transaction between armed institutions, while Ukrainian civilians and soldiers on the front lines of the conflict, which has been raging since 2022, had low expectations about the truce.
Kyiv has long pushed for a more comprehensive ceasefire, which it and its European allies see as a necessary first step toward striking a lasting end to the full-scale invasion. Moscow has insisted on agreeing a peace deal first, prompting accusations that it is not serious about ending the fighting. For the people living under the bombardment, the gap between declarations and reality remained wide enough to drive drones, shelling and more bodies through it.