Ukraine’s President Volodymyr Zelensky has accused Russia of violating its own Easter cease-fire nearly 3,000 times — as President Trump still reiterated his hopes that the two countries will reach a deal to end the war this week.
Ukrainian forces reported 2,935 violations of the 30-hour cease-fire vow made by President Vladimir Putin on Saturday, Zelensky said on Monday.
“The nature of Ukrainian actions will continue to be mirror-like: we will respond to silence with silence, and our blows will be a defense against Russian blows. Actions always speak louder than words,” Zelensky wrote in a post on the Telegram messaging app.
Russian forces launched 1,882 shells on Ukrainian positions, including 812 with heavy weapons, Zelensky said.
The Kremlin forces also carried out 96 assault operations along the front line and used hundreds of drones during the course of the cease-fire.
Most of the Russian shelling took place in the Pokrovsk district of the Donetsk region in eastern Ukraine, on the Russian border.
The town of Pokrovsk — home to some 69,000 residents before the war — is a key logistical hub for Ukrainian forces, due to its railway station and its location at the intersection of several important roads.
“Pokrovsk is a very important hub, a center of defense. If we lose Pokrovsk, the entire front line will crumble,” Ukrainian military expert Mykhalo Zhyrokhov told BBC News last year.
The Easter blitz also killed three people in Ukraine’s southern Kherson region, a regional official said Monday.
Still, President Trump reiterated his hopes that Moscow and Kyiv can agree to a peace deal imminently.
“Hopefully, Russia and Ukraine will make a deal this week. Both will then start to do big business with the United States of America, which is thriving, and make a fortune!” President Trump wrote on his Truth Social account on Sunday.
US envoy General Keith Kellogg, meanwhile, said on Sunday that NATO alliance membership was “off the table” for Ukraine.
Trump has previously said Zelensky “can forget” about joining NATO.
The Kremlin said on Monday that ruling out NATO membership for Ukraine gave Moscow satisfaction, but it did not comment on Trump’s hopes for a peace deal this week.
“We have heard from Washington at various levels that Ukraine’s membership in NATO is excluded,” Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov told reporters.
“Of course, this is something that causes us satisfaction and coincides with our position.”
The 30-hour Easter cessation in artillery fire was ordered by President Putin from 6 p.m. Friday Moscow time to midnight Sunday Moscow time.
At the same time, he vowed that his troops would repel any “violations of the truce,” in a warning to Ukraine.
On Friday, Trump threatened to abandon peace talks unless there were clear signs of progress. He famously vowed to end the war in 24 hours during the election campaign.