{"id":48432,"date":"2026-04-12T09:18:35","date_gmt":"2026-04-12T09:18:35","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/foreignnewstoday.com\/?p=48432"},"modified":"2026-04-12T09:18:35","modified_gmt":"2026-04-12T09:18:35","slug":"russia-continues-drone-strikes-on-ukraine-despite-supposed-truce","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/foreignnewstoday.com\/?p=48432","title":{"rendered":"Russia Continues Drone Strikes on Ukraine Despite Supposed Truce"},"content":{"rendered":"<p><br \/>\n<\/p>\n<div>\n<p class=\"subheading\">KYIV, Ukraine (AP) \u2013 Russia continued to strike Ukrainian positions with drones after a Kremlin-declared Easter ceasefire took effect on Saturday, a Ukrainian military officer told The Associated Press.<\/p>\n<p class=\"a9d-pre\">\u201cThe ceasefire is not being observed by the Russian side,\u201d said Serhii Kolesnychenko, a communications officer for the 148th Separate Artillery Brigade.<\/p>\n<figure id=\"D-ROS-B1\" class=\"a9d\"\/>\n<figure id=\"M-ROS-B1\" class=\"a9d\"\/>\n<figure id=\"gmxrevmore\" class=\"H\"\/>\n<p>He said that while artillery fire had paused in the sector where his brigade was working, at the junction of the Donetsk, Dnipropetrovsk, and Zaporizhzhia regions, Russian forces continued to use drones to strike Ukrainian positions.<\/p>\n<p>Ukrainian forces were responding with \u201csilence to silence and fire to fire,\u201d Kolesnychenko said.<\/p>\n<p>Russian President Vladimir Putin on Thursday declared a 32-hour ceasefire over the Orthodox Easter weekend, ordering Russian forces to halt hostilities from 4 p.m. on Saturday until the end of Sunday.<\/p>\n<p class=\"a9d-pre\">Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy promised to abide by the ceasefire, describing it as an opportunity to build on peace initiatives. But he warned there would be a swift military response to any violations.<\/p>\n<figure id=\"D-ROS-B2\" class=\"a9d\"\/>\n<figure id=\"M-ROS-B2\" class=\"a9d\"\/>\n<p>\u201cEaster should be a time of silence and safety. A ceasefire (at) Easter could also become the beginning of real movement toward peace,\u201d Zelenskyy wrote in an online post on Saturday.<\/p>\n<p>But he added: \u201cWe all understand who we are dealing with. Ukraine will adhere to the ceasefire and respond strictly in kind.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>Ukraine earlier proposed to Russia a pause in attacks on each other\u2019s energy infrastructure over the Orthodox Easter holiday.<\/p>\n<p>Previous ceasefire attempts have had little impact, with both sides accusing each other of violations.<\/p>\n<p>Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov on Friday described Putin\u2019s move as a \u201chumanitarian\u201d gesture, but said Moscow remains focused on a comprehensive settlement based on its longstanding demands \u2013 a key sticking point that has prevented the two sides from reaching an agreement.<\/p>\n<p><iframe src=\"https:\/\/www.breitbart.com\/t\/assets\/html\/tweet-5.html#2041171622401364441\" data-btlnk=\"https:\/\/twitter.com\/BreitbartLondon\/status\/2041171622401364441\" class=\"bnn-if-tweet\" loading=\"lazy\" width=\"560\" height=\"260\" frameborder=\"0\" scrolling=\"no\" allowtransparency=\"true\" allowfullscreen=\"true\"><\/iframe><\/p>\n<p>Hours before the ceasefire was due to begin, Russian drone strikes overnight killed at least two people in the Ukrainian city of Odesa, local authorities reported.<\/p>\n<figure id=\"M-ROS-B3\" class=\"a9d adSo\"\/>\n<p>A further two people were wounded in the attack on the Black Sea port city, when drones hit a residential area, damaging apartment buildings, houses and a kindergarten.<\/p>\n<p>The driver of a public trolley bus was killed after the vehicle was struck by a drone in the southern Ukrainian city of Kherson, less than an hour before the start of the ceasefire, Kherson regional head Oleksandr Prokudin wrote on Telegram.<\/p>\n<p>According to the Ukrainian Air Force, Russia targeted Ukraine with 160 drones overnight, of which 133 were shot down or intercepted, hours before a proposed Easter ceasefire was due to come into force.<\/p>\n<p>Russia\u2019s Defense Ministry said 99 Ukrainian drones were shot down overnight across Russia and occupied Crimea.<\/p>\n<p>Russia\u2019s Defense Ministry said that a prisoner swap Saturday brought home 175 of its soldiers. Zelenskyy confirmed Saturday\u2019s exchange, saying that 175 service members and seven civilians were returned. \u201cMost had been held in captivity since 2022. And finally, they are home,\u201d he wrote on X.<\/p>\n<p><iframe src=\"https:\/\/www.breitbart.com\/t\/assets\/html\/tweet-5.html#1960753256826593609\" data-btlnk=\"https:\/\/twitter.com\/BreitbartLondon\/status\/1960753256826593609\" class=\"bnn-if-tweet\" loading=\"lazy\" width=\"560\" height=\"260\" frameborder=\"0\" scrolling=\"no\" allowtransparency=\"true\" allowfullscreen=\"true\"><\/iframe><\/p>\n<p>Hundreds of relatives, clutching photos of missing soldiers, crowded around ambulances and buses carrying returned prisoners of war in northern Ukraine. Many called out names and brigade numbers in hopes of finding loved ones faster<\/p>\n<figure id=\"M-ROS-B4\" class=\"a9d adSo\"\/>\n<p>The crowd, many draped in blue and yellow flags, chanted \u201cWe welcome you!\u201d as the weary returnees in blue jackets reached through windows to shake hands and embrace well-wishers. Family also members held up portraits of others still-missing, asking the freed prisoners whether they recognized anyone.<\/p>\n<p>Svitlana Pohosyan was waiting for her son\u2019s return. Asked about the ceasefire, she said: \u201cI want to believe it. God willing, may it be so. We will believe and hope that everything will be fine, that a ceasefire will come on such a holy day, and that there will be peace \u2013 peace in Ukraine and peace in the whole world.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>\u201cMy celebration will come when my son returns,\u201d she added. \u201cI will hold him in my arms \u2013 and that will be the greatest celebration for me. And for every mother, every family.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>Periodic prisoner exchanges have been one of the few positive outcomes of otherwise fruitless monthslong U.S.-brokered negotiations between Moscow and Kyiv. The talks have delivered no progress on key issues preventing an end to Russia\u00b4s invasion of its neighbor, now in its fifth year.<\/p>\n<p>Separately, seven residents of Russia\u2019s Kursk region returned from Ukraine on Saturday after they were captured by the Ukrainian army, Russian state media reported. They were greeted at the Belarusian-Ukrainian border by Russia\u2019s human rights ombudswoman, Tatyana Moskalkova.<\/p>\n<p>According to Moskalkova, the returnees were the last of those who were taken to Ukraine from the Kursk region after the Ukrainian army took control of parts of the region in 2024.<\/p>\n<p>Ukrainian forces made a surprise incursion into Kursk in August 2024 in one of their biggest battlefield successes in the war. The incursion was the first time Russian territory was occupied by an invader since World War II and dealt a humiliating blow to the Kremlin.<\/p>\n<h5 class=\"western\"><em><span style=\"color: #ff0000;\">Follow Breitbart London on Facebook:<\/span><\/em><em>\u00a0<\/em><em><a href=\"https:\/\/www.facebook.com\/BreitbartLondon\/\"><span style=\"color: #0000ff;\">Breitbart London<\/span><\/a><\/em><\/h5>\n<\/p><\/div>\n<p><script async src=\"\/\/platform.twitter.com\/widgets.js\" charset=\"utf-8\"><\/script><br \/>\n<br \/><br \/>\n<br \/><a href=\"https:\/\/www.breitbart.com\/europe\/2026\/04\/11\/russia-continues-drone-strikes-on-ukraine-despite-supposed-orthodox-easter-truce\/\">Source link <\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>KYIV, Ukraine (AP) \u2013 Russia continued to strike Ukrainian positions with drones after a Kremlin-declared Easter ceasefire took effect on Saturday, a Ukrainian military officer told&hellip;<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":48433,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_lmt_disableupdate":"","_lmt_disable":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[30],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-48432","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-world-news"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/foreignnewstoday.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/48432","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/foreignnewstoday.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/foreignnewstoday.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/foreignnewstoday.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/foreignnewstoday.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=48432"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/foreignnewstoday.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/48432\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/foreignnewstoday.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/media\/48433"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/foreignnewstoday.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=48432"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/foreignnewstoday.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=48432"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/foreignnewstoday.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=48432"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}