{"id":134418,"date":"2025-04-20T13:29:00","date_gmt":"2025-04-20T13:29:00","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/quixnet.net\/wpinstance\/ukraine-war-latest-kremlin-responds-after-zelenskyy-details-russian-breaches-of-putins-easter-truce-sky-news\/"},"modified":"2025-04-20T13:29:00","modified_gmt":"2025-04-20T13:29:00","slug":"ukraine-war-latest-kremlin-responds-after-zelenskyy-details-russian-breaches-of-putins-easter-truce-sky-news","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/quixnet.net\/wpinstance\/ukraine-war-latest-kremlin-responds-after-zelenskyy-details-russian-breaches-of-putins-easter-truce-sky-news\/","title":{"rendered":"Ukraine war latest: Kremlin responds after Zelenskyy details Russian breaches of Putin's 'Easter truce' – Sky News"},"content":{"rendered":"

Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy says Russian drone strikes, shelling and attempts to advance continue on Easter Sunday, despite Vladimir Putin’s declaration of a 30-hour “Easter truce” yesterday. Follow the latest below.
Sunday 20 April 2025 14:15, UK
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We brought you details of a message Volodymyr Zelenskyy shared this morning looking ahead to a day when all Ukrainians can share a “peaceful Easter” together (see 7.16am post).
In a video posted on his personal channels, Zelenskyy pays tribute to the faith of Ukrainians, which he says has not faded for 1,152 days of the full-scale war.
Watch the Ukrainian president’s Easter message in the video below.
We reported this morning that RAF fighter jets were scrambled earlier this week to defend NATO airspace from Russian warplanes (see 9.40am post).
The Ministry of Defence (MoD) has since confirmed the news. It says two Typhoons were scrambled from Malbork air base in Poland on 15 April to intercept a Russian intelligence aircraft over the Baltic Sea.
It adds that, on 17 April, another two Typhoons scrambled from the base to intercept an unknown aircraft leaving Kaliningrad airspace, close to NATO airspace.
It’s the first time that the RAF has been called into action under Operation Chessman, a new NATO mission to bolster Europe’s air defences, involving cooperation between Polish, Swedish and British forces.
Shortly after Vladimir Putin’s “Easter truce” was announced yesterday, Russia and Ukraine swapped 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.
Watch a clip of the exchange below…
Russia’s defence ministry has issued an update on the military activity in its southern Kursk region.
Moscow’s military chief of staff Valery Gerasimov told Vladimir Putin yesterday that Russian troops had retaken more than 99% of the territory seized by Ukraine in the Kursk region in an incursion launched in August.
In its update, the defence ministry says the operation to neutralise Ukraine’s presence in Kursk is still “in progress”, adding that Kyiv’s forces lost up to 155 troops in the 24 hours before Putin’s “Easter truce” began.
It claims that Ukraine has lost more than 75,325 troops since the beginning of hostilities in Kursk last August, as well as 411 tanks and 629 artillery guns.
Sky News has not independently verified these figures.
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.
Ukraine’s former ambassador to Germany has outlined five steps he believes incoming chancellor Friedrich Merz should take to help Kyiv during his first 100 days in office.
In an open letter, Andrii Melnyk says he is writing to Merz “not as a diplomat, but as a human being and a European”.
“In two weeks, you are to be elected as the new federal chancellor. It is not only the Germans who hope for a true change of policy from you,” he says.
“We Ukrainians, too, look to you with confidence as the leader of the Western community of nations. You will have a heavy cross to bear.”
Melnyk then outlines five steps for Merz to take, asking him to:
Vladimir Putin’s “Easter truce” doesn’t seem to have got off the ground, with both Russia and Ukraine trading accusations of the other side instantly breaking the proposal.
So why did Moscow suggest the ceasefire in the first place? Sky’s military analyst Sean Bell<\/a> says there are three main reasons.
Putin the domestic peacemaker<\/b>
The first is the way it will be presented at home in Russia.
“This is a way of President Putin painting himself domestically as a sort of peacemaker and showing empathy and sympathy with his people,” Bell says.
Troop relocation<\/b>
The second reason, which Bell says is “far more cynical”, is that Putin wants to buy himself time to relocate the 50,000 Russian troops currently stationed in the Kursk region.
Reports suggest Moscow’s forces have now liberated 99% of the territory previously held by Ukraine in the southern Russian region.
“Why is that important? It’s important because Russia will now want to move the 50,000 troops that it had positioned there back down to the front line in the Donbas region,” Bell explains.. 
“And of course, that takes a matter of days. Troops need to reposition, refresh, feed. 
“So I wouldn’t be at all surprised if what Russia is doing is using this pause to move its forces around so it’s ready for the next big push.”
White House fears<\/b>
The final reason Bell suggests for Putin’s ceasefire stems from concern in the Kremlin that Donald Trump and the US could abandon plans to reintegrate Moscow into the global community.
Given Trump recently said he might “take a pass” from peace talks if either side “make it very difficult”, Bell says Putin could have proposed the ceasefire as a way of bringing the US back on side.
“Trump presents to Putin an option of getting back from a pariah status, potentially getting back into the G8, not having NATO on his doorstep, getting rid of some of the sanctions.
“I suspect Putin will be slightly worried that if Trump disengages, he’s a bit unpredictable, and therefore he might suddenly roundly back Ukraine again. 
“That, of course, would not play well for Russia.”
As Russia and Ukraine continue to trade accusations of breaking Vladimir Putin’s “Easter truce”, the man himself has been taking part in an Easter service in Moscow.
Putin met with Russian Orthodox Church Patriarch Kirill and Moscow’s mayor Sergei Sobyanin for the service, held in the Christ the Saviour Cathedral.
Volodymyr Zelenskyy has just shared an update on Russian attacks hitting Ukraine during Vladimir Putin’s proposed Easter ceasefire.
He says there has been an increase “in the number of Russian shelling and the use of kamikaze drones” since 10am this morning.
He adds that the number of FPV (first-person view) drones used by Russia has increased twofold.
“Either Putin does not fully control his army, or the situation proves that they in Russia do not have the goal of a real movement until the end of the war and they only need profitable PR in the media.”
Zelenskyy also thanks the media and “everyone who spreads the truth about what’s happening”. 
“It’s worth broadcasting not the services from Moscow, but putting pressure on Moscow to really go for a full ceasefire and keep it for at least 30 days after Easter to give diplomacy a chance,” he adds.
This morning, Ukraine’s president said Russia had already gone back on its word, claiming there had been “dozens” of strikes on Ukrainian positions overnight and into the morning (see our 7.01am post).
Volodymyr Zelenskyy has already accused Russia of breaking its own “Easter truce” – saying there had been “dozens” of strikes and artillery attacks on Ukrainian positions near the frontline.
Ukraine’s president said shortly after the truce was announced by Vladimir Putin yesterday that he doubted whether Russia would keep its word.
That assessment came with good reason, given Russia’s recent history of breaking ceasefire agreements…
Minsk agreements<\/b>
After Russia illegally annexed Crimea in 2014, Russian leaders sat down with Ukraine and signed the first of two agreements in the Belarusian capital of Minsk.
A day after the deal – which included prisoner exchanges, the delivery of humanitarian aid and the withdrawal of heavy weapons – Ukraine reported that Russian troops had fired on them several times. The ceasefire failed to materialise.
After fighting intensified, a second agreement was reached, with Putin and then Ukrainian president Petro Poroshenko again meeting in Minsk.
That deal was overseen by Angela Merkel, then the German chancellor, and Francois Hollande, France’s president at the time.
This came into effect on 15 February but apparently lasted a matter of minutes. Kyiv’s military reported that Russian units had immediately fired on a Ukrainian checkpoint near Zolote in Luhansk.
Zelenskyy’s attempt<\/b>
It was just two months after comedian-turned-politician Zelenskyy assumed his role as the president of Ukraine in 2019 that he found himself opposite Putin for the latest round of peace talks.
These talks were mediated by Merkel and the new French leader Emmanuel Macron.
In a written statement, Russia and Ukraine agreed to a “full and comprehensive” ceasefire in eastern Ukraine by the end of 2019.
But it never came to fruition, with the two countries unable to agree on the withdrawal of Russian-backed troops and the elections in the separatist-held regions.
“We saw differences today,” Macron said at the time. “We didn’t find the miracle solution, but we have advanced on it.”
2022 ceasefire<\/b>
Just a few months after Russia launched its full-scale invasion of Ukraine, a ceasefire was proposed to take place between 21 and 25 April.
UN Secretary-General Antonio Guterres put forward the idea, aiming to “open a series of humanitarian corridors” and allow for the “safe exit of all civilians wishing to leave areas of confrontation”.
But it never came to be, and fighting continued across the country.
Recent Trump-backed ceasefire proposals<\/b>
Most recently, the US brokered a 30-day pause on all strikes targeting energy infrastructure between both Ukraine and Russia during talks in Riyadh, Saudi Arabia.
Based on public statements, both countries appeared to agree to the moratorium, but within a few days Kyiv and Moscow traded accusations that the other side had not adhered to the ceasefire.
The agreement expired on 18 April and was not renewed.
There were also proposals for a ceasefire in the Black Sea. Ukraine viewed the deal as immediate but Russia insisted it would only start when certain sanctions on Russian firms were lifted. As a result, it was another ceasefire that never really started – despite the Trump administration claiming a diplomatic win.
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