Russian President Vladimir Putin declared an “Easter truce” for 30 hours over the weekend, slightly extending his unilateral, monthlong ceasefire on Ukrainian energy infrastructure which expired last Friday.

Long-distance attacks between Russia and Ukraine came to a halt during that period, while Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy proposed extending the truce for at least 30 days.

Putin rejected the offer, saying Zelenskyy wasn’t serious about a ceasefire, which mirrored Zelenskyy’s view of Putin.

“There were no air raid alerts on Easter, and some sectors of the front line remained quiet. This proves it is possible – it’s possible when Russia chooses to reduce the killing,” said Zelenskyy in an evening address on Monday.

Ukraine has consistently maintained that as the aggressor in the war, Russia is also the party supremely equipped to end it.

Russia did not honour its own Easter ceasefire on the ground, Zelenskyy said. “There have already been 67 Russian assaults against our positions,” he wrote on social media on Sunday evening. “In practice, across all main front-line directions, Russia has failed to uphold its own promise of ceasefire.”

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But given the successful suspension of long-range attacks, Zelenskyy said, “Ukraine proposes to cease any strikes using long-range drones and missiles on civilian infrastructure for a period of at least 30 days, with the possibility of extension.”

“The fighting has resumed,” Putin told journalists on Monday.

“We have always had a positive attitude towards the ceasefire, that is why we came up with such an initiative,” he said. “A statement was published according to which our proposal was considered a game with fates, with people’s lives… We see now that the Kyiv regime is trying to seize the initiative and talk about expansion.”

Putin accused Ukrainian forces of 4,900 ceasefire “violations”, including “90 attempts to strike” unmanned aerial vehicles, thus revealing that Russia was deploying them during its declared truce.

Repositioning forces

Anastasia Blyshchyk, spokesperson for Ukraine’s 66th Separate Mechanised Brigade defending the eastern town of Lyman, said Russia didn’t stop artillery attacks during its self-imposed truce, and moreover used it to reposition its forces to advantage.

“We saw how they pulled their infantry to the front line along with their weapons – these were RPGs and machine guns. We saw that over 120 Russian occupiers during this time of the so-called Easter truce dispersed in plantings, in forest belts, in destroyed buildings and dugouts. And as soon as the… so-called Easter truce ended, the Russians launched a massive infantry offensive,” Blyshchyk told Ukraine public broadcaster Suspilne.

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Company commander Denys Perch told Suspilne that Russian forces used the truce to clear pontoons and other crossings on the river separating Lyman from Russian positions of damaged vehicles in preparation for future offensives. “This pause was necessary for them to perform certain actions that we usually prevent them from doing,” he said.

Viktor Tregubov, spokesman for the Khortytsia group of forces in the east, told the United News telethon, Ukaine’s wartime pool of television channels, that Russian forces carried out “manoeuvres under the nose, which at the same time looked like assaults, but came as if under a white flag. It seemed that they were really trying to provoke visual violations of fire. So that we would take it for an assault, and then strike.”

In his address on Monday, Zelenskyy said: “Russia has rejected not only the US proposal for a full and unconditional ceasefire, which was made more than a month ago during the talks in Jeddah, but also yesterday’s proposal – the proposal to continue doing everything possible to maintain the ceasefire after Easter. All of this once again shows what Moscow truly wants.”

Ukraine still trying to bridge allies

In a statement last week, US State Department spokesperson Tammy Bruce said, “President Trump and the United States want this war to end, and have now presented to all parties the outlines of a durable and lasting peace. The encouraging reception in Paris to the US framework shows that peace is possible if all parties commit to reaching an agreement.”

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Bruce was referring to separate meetings a Ukrainian delegation held in Paris last week with US and European officials.

Ukrainian Deputy Prime Minister Yulia Svyrydenko announced on April 17 that Ukraine had signed a statement of intent with the US to conclude an agreement “that will benefit both our peoples”, referring to the exploitation of Ukraine’s mineral wealth, something Trump has been pursuing since February.

On the same day, Zelenskyy’s head of office, Andriy Yermak, Defence Minister Rustem Umerov and Foreign Minister Andrii Sybiha met at the Elysee Palace in Paris with the foreign policy and security advisers of the French, British and German government leaders, to discuss a ceasefire and possible security guarantees.

Zelenskyy told Ukrainians the talks were “preparing a new security architecture – all the specific details of how a partner security contingent in Ukraine can function”.

While his negotiators were in Paris, Zelenskyy met co-chair of the US Congressional Ukraine Caucus, Brian Fitzpatrick.

Fitzpatrick reportedly said Ukraine enjoyed support among many Republicans and once a Ukraine support bill came to the floor it would receive overwhelming support.

“As these negotiations are going back and forth, you should know that you’re in a position of strength because of people like us, and we are willing to make those tough decisions to support you,” Fitzpatrick said.

Trump has publicly opposed further military aid to Ukraine, and even before being elected pressed legislators into delaying a $60bn aid bill by six months.

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Last Friday, Ukraine announced it would open national resistance training centres across the country.

Veterans will reportedly teach a programme designed by the Territorial Defence Forces, Ukraine’s military reserve.

It wasn’t clear whether the training would involve combat, support roles to free up military personnel, or other duties to support civil-military infrastructure.

Deputy Defence Minister Yevhen Moysiuk said it would “ensure that our citizens will be ready to contribute to the country’s security”.