The “Easter truce” declared by Vladimir Putin was broken nearly 3,000 times, Volodymyr Zelenskyy has said. Now that “truce” is officially over, Ukraine’s air force has reported attacks across eastern Ukraine, with sirens sounded in the capital Kyiv. Follow the latest below.
Monday 21 April 2025 08:16, UK
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Volodymyr Zelenskyy said he is willing to pause strikes for 30 days, if Russia were to agree to the same.
But Vladimir Putin has given no orders to extend the Easter truce, which officially ended last night and both sides accused the other of violating.
His mouthpiece Dmitry Peskov, in comments cited by Russia’s TASS state news agency, said “there were no other commands” when asked if the ceasefire could be prolonged.
By Mark Wyatt, live news reporter
Welcome back to another week of our live coverage of the war in Ukraine and efforts to bring an end to the fighting.
Before we get to our live updates, here’s everything you need to know ahead of a new week.
Putin’s ‘Easter truce’
Vladimir Putin surprised the world on Saturday when he announced that he was ordering all of Moscow’s forces to lay down their weapons for an “Easter truce”.
The Russian president said his decision was “guided by humanitarian considerations” and that the temporary pause in fighting would last from 6pm local time on Saturday until the stroke of midnight last night (10pm BST).
Volodymyr Zelenskyy said Ukraine would respond to Putin’s ceasefire accordingly and meet “silence in response with silence”, but added that he would also authorise “defensive strikes in response to attacks” if Moscow were to break its truce.
The silence never came, with Ukraine’s president reporting Russia quickly went back on its word, claiming there had been “dozens” of strikes on Ukrainian positions on Saturday night and into yesterday morning (see our 7.01am post).
The Kremlin hit back with its own accusations, saying it had counted more than 900 Ukrainian drone attacks, while insisting its military groups had “strictly abided” by the ceasefire.
Some observers did report an easing of attacks on Ukraine’s major cities but hostilities continued elsewhere.
Sky’s military analyst Sean Bell suggested three reasons Putin proposed the truce – for his domestic image as a peacemaker, in order to move troops out of Kursk after largely reclaiming the Russian territory from Ukrainians, and as a gesture to please Donald Trump.
As Moscow correspondent Ivor Bennett put it, Russia’s ceasefire appeared “more like a diplomatic dance, rather than a military, or moral, manoeuvre”.
Could US ‘walk away’?
The US has made no secret of its growing frustration at the lack of progress in peace negotiations and Trump threatened to “take a pass” on attempts to reach an agreement late last week.
That came after his secretary of state Marco Rubio said the US might “walk away” from talks after spending two months sitting down with both sides on multiple occasions with little to show for it.
Rubio had just finished a round of talks with Ukrainian and European officials in Paris alongside Trump’s special envoy Steve Witkoff.
Watch: US ready to walk away from peace efforts, Rubio says
Still, Russia’s “Easter truce” might have shifted perspectives in Washington somewhat, even if it was not widely observed. It’s the first real concession made by Moscow since Trump initiated peace negotiations two months ago.
“It feels like Putin is giving Trump just enough to keep him on side, without actually making any major concession,” says Bennett.
Prisoner exchange
This Easter weekend also saw Russia and Ukraine swap hundreds of prisoners in the war’s largest exchange so far.
A total of 277 Ukrainians returned from Russian captivity – a figure which includes 31 wounded prisoners of war transferred in exchange for 15 wounded Russian servicemen in need of urgent medical care.
Russia’s defence ministry said 246 Russian servicemen were returned in total.
Minerals deal
Looking forward to the week ahead, the US and Ukraine are expected to sign a long-awaited minerals deal.
Trump has pushed for a deal that would allow the US to share in the profits of Ukraine’s natural resources and critical minerals, something he casts as repayment for military aid provided by Washington to Kyiv since 2022.
The deal was expected to be done weeks ago but was derailed by Zelenskyy’s falling out at the White House.
US treasury secretary Scott Bessent said the current deal was “substantially what we’d agreed on previously”.
That previous agreement was never published, but details were shared by Ukrainian media at the time.
It envisaged Ukraine contributing 50% of its future proceeds from state-owned mineral resources, oil and gas to an investment fund, which would be used “to promote the safety, security and prosperity of Ukraine”.
Battlefield latest
Moscow’s military chief of staff Valery Gerasimov told Vladimir Putin over the weekend that Russian troops had retaken more than 99% of the territory seized by Ukraine in the Kursk region in an incursion launched in August.
These maps show the latest territorial situation, indicating how much ground is held by Russian and Ukrainian forces:
And if you missed the latest Q&A session with Professor Michael Clarke talking all things Russia and Ukraine, you can watch it in full here:
Russia launched 96 drones and three missiles in fresh attacks this morning, Ukraine’s air force has said.
Air raid alerts sounded in Kyiv and the eastern half of Ukraine, where strikes caused damage in the Kharkiv, Dnipropetrovsk and Cherkasy regions, it added.
Defence units shot down 42 Russian drones and another 47 were redirected by electronic warfare, the force added.
It did not give details on the missiles.
More on that Easter truce that did not appear to hold in any meaningful way yesterday.
Yesterday, we reported Ukraine claimed more than 2,000 violations of Russia’s own ceasefire.
That’s now jumped up to 2,935 in all, according to Volodymyr Zelenskyy.
“The nature of Ukrainian actions will continue to be mirrored: we will respond to silence with silence, our strikes will be to protect against Russian strikes,” he said in a message on social media app Telegram.
Meanwhile, Russia’s defence ministry claims Ukraine broke the ceasefire more than 1,000 times, damaging infrastructure and causing civilian deaths.
Welcome back, today begins another potentially pivotal week in the war.
Just last night, Donald Trump said he hopes both Russia and Ukraine will agree to a deal this week – but he didn’t expand on this.
On Friday, Trump and his top diplomat Marco Rubio said the US would walk away from talks unless there are clear signs of progress soon, so we’ll keep a close eye on developments.
On the battlefield, Vladimir Putin’s so-called Easter truce officially expired, even though both sides accused the other of violating it.
And Ukraine has already reported widespread attacks – more on that shortly.
Stay with us as we bring you the latest.
Thanks for following our coverage of the war in Ukraine today.
We’re pausing our live updates for now – before we go, here’s a summary of the day’s key developments:
Putin’s ‘Easter truce’ expires
Vladimir Putin’s 30-hour “Easter truce” has come to an end after the Kremlin confirmed the Russian president would not be extending the ceasefire.
Despite Putin’s pledge to “cease all military operations” both sides have been accusing each other of breaking the truce.
Moscow insisted its military groups have “strictly abided” by the ceasefire, and said Ukrainian forces shot at Russian positions more than 444 times, while it counted more than 900 drone attacks.
Meanwhile, Volodymyr Zelenskyy said Russia’s army had violated Putin’s ceasefire “more than 2,000 times” including at least 1,355 cases of Russian shelling.
Zelenskyy proposes pause on some long-range strikes
But the Ukrainian president continued to call for a longer pause, and proposed to “cease any strikes using long-range drones and missiles on civilian infrastructure” for at least 30 days.
“If Russia does not agree to such a step, it will be proof that it intends to continue doing only those things which destroy human lives and prolong the war,” Zelenskyy added.
We also heard from Donald Trump for the first time since Putin announced his “Easter truce”.
The US president took to Truth Social to say he hopes Russia and Ukraine will make a deal this week, stating they would then be able to do “big business” with the US.
RAF scrambled to intercept Russian jets
Away from the situation on the battlefield, the UK Ministry of Defence said RAF fighter jets were scrambled earlier this week to defend NATO airspace from Russian warplanes.
Two Typhoons were scrambled from Malbork air base in Poland on 15 April to intercept a Russian intelligence aircraft over the Baltic Sea.
On 17 April, another two Typhoons scrambled from the base to intercept an unknown aircraft leaving Kaliningrad airspace, close to NATO airspace.
Troops attend Easter services on the frontline
We’ve also been providing you with picture updates showing Ukrainian and Russian troops attending Easter services on the frontline.
Scroll to see the best pictures below – the first three images show Ukrainian servicemen at a service, while the other three show Russian soldiers.
If you missed it a little earlier, Pope Francis included a reference to the war in Ukraine when he made a brief appearance to bless crowds gathered to celebrate Easter Sunday at the Vatican earlier.
It was the 88-year-old pontiff’s first significant public appearance since he left hospital, where he was treated for double pneumonia.
“Brothers and sisters, Happy Easter!” Pope Francis managed to say, before an aide read the rest of his annual Urbi et Orbi blessing and speech, which called for an end to the conflicts in Ukraine and Gaza.
“May the risen Christ grant Ukraine, devastated by war, his Easter gift of peace, and encourage all parties involved to pursue efforts aimed at achieving a just and lasting peace,” the message said.
Watch this report from our correspondent Emma Birchley below.
It’s 10pm in the UK, midnight in Moscow and Kyiv, meaning Vladimir Putin’s “Easter truce” has now come to an end.
That’s after the Kremlin said the Russian president has not ordered an extension to the ceasefire (see 4.54pm post).
Despite Putin vowing to “cease all military operations” the pause never got off the ground, with both sides accusing each other of violations (see 2.43pm post).
More recently this evening, Volodymyr Zelenskyy proposed a longer 30-day pause on “any strikes using long-range drones and missiles on civilian infrastructure” – we’re yet to hear Moscow’s response.
Although Putin’s “Easter truce” was only in place for 30 hours, its timing was significant after growing US frustration at the lack of progress in peace negotiations.
That’s something our Moscow correspondent Ivor Bennett points out in his analysis below.
With 20 minutes to go until Vladimir Putin’s Easter truce expires, the measure has been described as “more like a media stunt than reality”.
Czech Republic’s foreign affairs minister Jan Lipavsky said the Russian president’s approach to the truce “is like going on a hunger strike between breakfast and lunch while secretly eating candy”.
Lipavsky has publicly been critical of Putin’s announcement, which he labelled as “propaganda” yesterday.
The truce never really got off the ground, with both Moscow and Kyiv accusing each other of attacks since it came into effect at 4pm UK time yesterday afternoon.
We’ve just heard from Donald Trump for the first time since Vladimir Putin announced his “Easter truce” – which will expire in around 40 minutes.
The US president has taken to Truth Social and has written a post in his usual block-capital style.
“HOPEFULLY RUSSIA AND UKRAINE WILL MAKE A DEAL THIS WEEK,” he said.
“BOTH WILL THEN START TO DO BIG BUSINESS WITH THE UNITED STATES OF AMERICA, WHICH IS THRIVING, AND MAKE A FORTUNE!”
We brought you comments from the US State Department earlier this evening, which said it would welcome an extension to Putin’s Easter truce (see 6.33pm post).
But the Kremlin has confirmed that’s something the Russian president has not ordered (see 4.54pm post).
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