Russia and Ukraine yesterday accused each other of violating a brief ceasefire in their four-year-old war hours into the truce put in place to mark Orthodox Easter.
Governors of two Russian border regions said Ukrainian drones had attacked targets in the Kursk and Belgorod regions, injuring five people.
The General Staff of Ukraine’s military said Russian forces had violated the terms of the 32-hour truce 469 times, including assault actions, shelling and drone strikes.
The ceasefire, announced by Russian President Vladimir Putin on Thursday, went into effect at 4pm Moscow time. His Ukrainian counterpart, Volodymyr Zelenskiy, said he would abide by it.
The ceasefire was put in place as US-led negotiations to reach a settlement have been halted amid the war in the Middle East.
Alexander Khinshtein, governor of Russia’s Kursk border region, wrote on the state-backed messenger service MAX that a Ukrainian drone had struck a petrol station in the town of Lgov, injuring three people, including a child. Khinshtein said the attack took place after the start of the truce.
In the adjacent Belgorod region, Governor Vyacheslav Gladkov said two people were injured in Ukrainian drone attacks.
Gladkov, writing on Telegram, said a man and woman were injured in attacks in Shebekino and Grayvoron, two small towns just inside the border. He also said Ukrainian forces had shelled Shebekino, damaging homes and other buildings. A local Russia-installed official in a part of southern Kherson region held by Moscow also reported on social media a Ukrainian drone attack had injured one person.
According to the calendar of the Orthodox faith, which is dominant in both Russia and Ukraine, Easter is celebrated today this year.
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