Ukraine and Russia again accused each other of violating an Orthodox Easter truce, with both sides alleging thousands of attacks and other violations.
With Russia’s all-out war on Ukraine well into its fifth year and the spring fighting season ramping up, Kyiv and Moscow had agreed to a 36-hour cease-fire coinciding with the Orthodox holiday, which began at midnight April 12.
But both Russian and Ukrainian forces reported hundreds of incidents in the hours after the truce was supposed to take effect, on April 11.
As of the morning of April 12, Ukraine’s military said it had tallied nearly 2,300 “violations” — including “enemy assault activity, shelling, attack drone strikes.”
There were no missile strikes, guided aerial bomb strikes, or attacks by kamikaze drones, the military said in a post to Facebook.
In the northern Sumy region, an ambulance was hit by a Russian drone overnight, officials said, wounding three paramedics.
Russia has routinely hit civilian targets including firefighters, hospitals, and ambulances throughout the conflict, in some cases launching “double-tap” strikes that target first responders as they treat survivors of an attack.
Russia’s Defense Ministry accused Ukraine of nearly 2,000 violations of its own over the previous 16 hours, including artillery or tank shelling , drone strikes, and “various types of munitions” dropped by drones.
The ministry said several civilians were injured in a Ukrainian drone attack in the Kursk border region. The report could not be independently verified.
A similar truce announced over Orthodox Easter last year was also marred by thousands of violations.
Moscow’s war on Ukraine hit its fourth anniversary on February 28. Amid multiple rounds of US-backed peace talks, negotiations have ground to a halt, as the US administration focuses on the war with Iran and Russia shows little indication of bending from hard-line positions that Ukraine has called unacceptable.
Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy congratulated Ukrainians on the holiday and referred to this past winter, which was unusually cold and brutal, as Russian attacks left millions without power or heat for months.
“For the fifth year in a row, we [celebrate Easter]…despite the pain, all the trials, and the evil that surrounds our land,” he said in a statement.
Russian President Vladimir Putin, meanwhile, attended midnight Mass at a Moscow cathedral and issued holiday well-wishes to Orthodox believers. He praised the Russian Orthodox Church and other religious organizations for “supporting the special military operation and their families,” according to a Kremlin statement.
Special military operation is the euphemism the Kremlin uses to describe the Ukraine war.
Pope Leo XIV, meanwhile, offered his own holiday blessing for Orthodox Christians, and specifically for Ukrainians.
“Let us [pray together] for all those suffering due to war, particularly for the dear people of Ukraine,” the Roman Catholic pontiff said in a post on X.
“May the international community’s attention to the tragedy of this war not waver!” he added.
Most Ukrainians adhere to Orthodox Christianity, though there are also thousands of Roman Catholic believers, mostly in its western regions.
Zelenskyy has met with the pope several times, and visited the Vatican after Leo was elected last year.
Since Russia’s full-scale invasion, the Kyiv government has shifted emphasis for some major religious holidays such as Christmas away from the Orthodox Julian calendar, toward the Western religious calendar.
Zelenskyy also issued congratulations on April 5, when Catholics, Protestants, and most Western denominations marked Easter.
