Russia reportedly broke its ‘humanitarian’ ceasefire just hours after it came into effect on Thursday, with Kyiv reporting ground assaults in several areas in Ukraine.
A Ukrainian military confirmed to Reuters today that Russian troops had continued operations in parts of the eastern front into Thursday.
The air force also said that Russian aircraft had launched guided bombs on the Sumy region three times.
The Russian ceasefire, coinciding with the 80th anniversary of the World War Two defeat of Nazi Germany, went into effect at midnight Moscow time (2100 GMT).
Putin had presented the truce as a ‘humanitarian’ gesture which, the Kremlin said, would test Kyiv’s readiness for peace.
Ukraine never agreed to the truce and has maintained that the ceasefire is a farce – a ‘game’.
Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy instead called Putin’s bluff, demanding a 30-day ceasefire instead on Wednesday, which Russia did not accept.
Both sides have made overtures to peace negotiations, though U.S. mediated talks in recent weeks have failed to make substantial progress.
Kyiv earlier accused Moscow of hundreds of violations during a previous, 30-hour ceasefire Putin ordered for Easter.
Viktor Trehubov, a military spokesperson for Ukraine’s eastern front, said Russian troops had continued to attack Ukrainian soldiers in the east after the ceasefire kicked in.
Ukraine’s general staff said in its readout on the state of play that there had been 139 clashes on the entire front line as of 10 p.m. Ukrainian time (1900 GMT) on Wednesday and 196 for the last day as of 8 a.m. on Thursday.
