Russia and Ukraine accuse each other of breaking one-day Easter ceasefire
CBC
Russia and Ukraine blamed each other on Sunday for breaking a one-day Easter ceasefire announced by Russian President Vladimir Putin, with each side accusing the other of carrying out hundreds of attacks.
Putin, who ordered thousands of Russian troops into Ukraine in February 2022, ordered Russian forces to "stop all military activity" along the front line of the war until midnight Moscow time on Sunday.
Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy said Russia was pretending to observe the Easter ceasefire, but had in fact continued hundreds of artillery attacks on Saturday night, with more assaults on Sunday.
Zelenskyy wrote on the X social media platform that Russia had launched 26 assaults from midnight until midday local time.
"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 favourable PR coverage," Zelenskyy's post said.
Earlier, he said the Russian army "is trying to create a general impression of a ceasefire," while continuing to inflict losses on Ukraine's front line.
Russia's Defence Ministry said Ukraine had broken the ceasefire more than 1,000 times, inflicting damage to infrastructure and causing some civilian deaths.
The ministry said Ukrainian forces had shot at Russian positions 444 times, and it had counted more than 900 Ukrainian drone attacks, including on Crimea and on the Russian border regions of Bryansk, Kursk and Belgorod.
"As a result, there are deaths and injuries among the civilian population, as well as damage to civilian facilities," the ministry said.
Ukraine's military said earlier on Sunday that activity on the front line had decreased. Some Russian military bloggers also said military activity along the frontline has substantially decreased.
Reuters was unable to immediately verify the battlefield reports from either side.
The apparent failure to observe an Easter ceasefire shows just how hard it will be for U.S. President Donald Trump to achieve his aim of clinching a lasting deal to end what he calls the "bloodbath" of the war in Ukraine.
The U.S. will walk away from efforts to broker a peace deal unless there are clear signs of progress soon, Trump and his secretary of state, Marco Rubio, said on Friday.
Trump, who says he wants to be remembered as a peacemaker, has repeatedly warned of the escalation risk of the war — which his administration now casts as a proxy conflict between the U.S. and Russia, echoing Moscow's stance.
Run 3 Space | Play Space Running Game
Traffic Jam 3D | Online Racing Game
Duck Hunt | Play Old Classic Game
A U.S. appeals court on Thursday allowed U.S. President Donald Trump to maintain his deployment of National Guard troops in Los Angeles amid protests over stepped-up immigration enforcement, temporarily pausing a lower court's ruling that had ordered control of the troops should be returned to the state.
Most days, Edwin Ciara positions himself on a median at the entrance to the Home Depot parking lot along Wilshire Avenue in Los Angeles and waits for a contractor who might give him a few hours of work.
Despite enormous criticism from abroad, Israel appears to believe its war strategy in Gaza is slowly working thanks in part to the efforts of the mysterious new Gaza Humanitarian Foundation (GHF).
As curfew takes effect in L.A., protestors — and the governor — say the military isn't needed at all
In the last minutes of daylight on Tuesday night in downtown Los Angeles, a police helicopter circled overhead and warned a crowd of people along Temple Street they were gathered in an unlawful assembly and would be arrested if they did not leave.
Mohamed Hijazi squirms as his father unwraps a bandage for him. He cries and kicks his feet, but his dad manages to eventually place the bandage over his eye.
On an unseasonably chilly but sunny day, March 20, 1965, U.S. President Lyndon B. Johnson stood on the porch of his Texas ranch and read a telegram he had just sent to Alabama Gov. George Wallace.
Tensions in Los Angeles escalated Sunday as thousands of protesters took to the streets in response to U.S. President Donald Trump's extraordinary deployment of the National Guard, blocking off a major freeway and setting self-driving cars on fire as law enforcement used tear gas, rubber bullets and flash bangs to control the crowd.
U.S. President Donald Trump has authorized 2,000 California National Guard troops — despite the governor's objections — to the Los Angeles area, where protests on Saturday led to clashes between immigration authorities and demonstrators.
Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said Israel has "operated clans" in Gaza in a video published on social media Thursday after an opposition leader accused him of arming Palestinian militias in order to bolster opposition to Hamas.
At least 16 Palestinians were killed by the Israeli military in Gaza on Friday, according to local health authorities, as a U.S.- and Israeli-backed group said it had handed out aid in the enclave after earlier saying that its distribution sites were closed.
It's splitsville for a global power couple. Donald Trump and Elon Musk are tumbling into a messy public divorce, with unusual political fallout.
Israel's military recovered the bodies of two hostages, Canadian Israeli Judih Weinstein Haggai and her husband, Israeli American Gadi Haggai, who were held by Hamas, Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said on Thursday.
U.S. President Donald Trump resurrected a hallmark policy of his first term, announcing that citizens of 12 countries would be banned from visiting the United States and those from seven others would face restrictions.