Zelenskyy: Putin's ceasefire is fake 'PR'

Volodymyr Zelenskyy yesterday dismissed Vladimir Putin's Easter ceasefire as a fake "PR" exercise and said Russian troops had continued their drone and artillery attacks across many parts of the frontline.

- Luke Harding

Citing a report from Ukraine's commander-in-chief, Oleksandr Syrskyi, Zelenskyy said Russia was still using heavy weapons and an increase in Russian shelling had been observed since 10am yesterday.

The Russian army had doubled its use of kamikaze drones, he added, saying that there were 26 assaults between midnight on Saturday and noon yesterday. The 30-hour truce announced by Putin on Friday was scheduled to end at midnight yesterday (2100 GMT).

The US state department said it would welcome a ceasefire extension, though the Kremlin spokesperson, Dmitry Peskov, told Russian media no such order had been given by Putin.

Zelenskyy wrote on social media: "We are documenting every Russian violation of its self-declared commitment to a full ceasefire for the Easter period and are prepared to provide the necessary information to our partners.

"In practice, either Putin does not have full control over his army, or the situation proves that in Russia they have no intention of making a genuine move toward ending the war, and are only interested in favourable PR coverage.

"The Russian army is attempting to create the general impression of a ceasefire, while in some areas still continuing isolated attempts to advance."

Zelenskyy later added that Ukrainian soldiers had been killed in an ambush in Toretsk in Donetsk oblast.

Video footage from the battlefield appeared to confirm the Ukrainian president's claim that the east of the country was under Russian fire.

White puffs of smoke could be seen above the village of Uspenivka, in the Pokrovsk area of Donetsk.