After Easter pause ends: Ukraine’s Zelenskyy urges new ceasefire
Shafaq News/ On Sunday, Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy proposed a 30-day halt to Russian drone and missile attacks on civilian infrastructure.
In a post on X, Zelenskyy stated that rejecting the proposal would confirm Russia’s intent to “continue destroying lives and prolonging the war.” He cited more than 2,000 ceasefire violations within 24 hours, including 67 attacks across multiple fronts and over 1,350 shelling incidents—713 involving heavy weapons. Still, he noted no air raid sirens had sounded recently.
A report by Commander-in-Chief Syrskyi as of 8:00 p.m. on Easter Day.As of this hour, since the beginning of the day, the Russian army has violated Putin’s ceasefire more than two thousand times. There have already been 67 Russian assaults against our positions across various…
— Volodymyr Zelenskyy / Володимир Зеленський (@ZelenskyyUa) April 20, 2025
The appeal followed Russian President Vladimir Putin’s announcement of a brief Easter ceasefire, which Kyiv and Western observers criticized as largely symbolic. While Ukraine agreed to match the declared pause, Zelenskyy said Russian forces intensified their use of heavy arms during that period.
Russia has yet to respond to the proposal. Earlier, Kremlin spokesperson Dmitry Peskov confirmed that President Putin had not extended the Easter ceasefire, which began Saturday evening and was due to expire at midnight Sunday (2100 GMT).
