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President Vladimir Putin has announced an unexpected and brief unilateral Easter truce in Russia’s war on Ukraine while Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy insists that Russian “assault operations” and “artillery fire are ongoing”.
Zelenskyy initially called the announcement on Saturday “another attempt by Putin to play with human lives. … Air raid alerts are spreading across Ukraine,” and “Shahed drones in our skies reveal Putin’s true attitude toward Easter and toward human life.”
Russian missiles struck the heart of the Ukrainian city of Sumy as people gathered to celebrate Palm Sunday, killing at least 34 people, officials said, in the second large-scale attack to claim civilian lives in just over a week.
The two ballistic missiles hit around 10:15 a.m., officials said. Images from the scene showed lines of black body bags on the side of the road, while more bodies were seen wrapped in foil blankets among the debris. Video footage also showed fire crews fighting to extinguish the shells of burned-out cars among the rubble from damaged buildings.
UN Human Rights Chief Volker Türk today expressed shock at an attack by Russian armed forces on the Ukrainian city of Kryvyi Rih which reportedly killed 18 people, including nine children, most of whom were playing in a park.
A team from the UN Human Rights Office in Ukraine visited the impact site on Saturday, documented the damage, and established the names and identity of the killed children. It is the deadliest single strike harming children which the Office has verified since the start of the full-scale invasion in February 2022.
Russian officials said Tuesday that Ukrainian attacks involving more than 90 drones killed at least two people and injured 18 others in the Moscow region.
The assault was part of an overall attack overnight that included more than 300 Ukrainian drones targeting 10 Russian regions stretching from border areas to the Russian capital.
Russian forces are attempting to create an active fighting zone in Ukraine’s northeastern region of Sumy, across the border from Russia’s Kursk region, Ukraine’s border guard spokesman said on Monday.
Russian forces have stepped up their pressure on Ukrainian troops holding parts of Kursk seven months after a cross-border assault that Kyiv launched in part to gain a bargaining chip in possible peace negotiations.