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A truce between Russia and Ukraine<\/a> to mark the Orthodox Easter formally expired Monday, both sides having accused each other of thousands of violations, despite a lull in Russian air raids.<\/p>\n The truce lasted 32 hours, from 4:00 pm (1300 GMT) on Saturday until the end of the day on Sunday.<\/p>\n Both sides had agreed to observe the ceasefire, which Russian President Vladimir Putin<\/a> ordered on Thursday and which Ukrainian counterpart Volodymyr Zelensky<\/a> proposed more than a week earlier.<\/p>\n But as with a similar agreement last year, only relative calm reigned along the 1,200-kilometre (745-mile) front line.<\/p>\n As of 10:00 pm (1900 GMT) on Sunday, “7,696 violations by the enemy have been recorded”, the Ukrainian army said on Facebook.<\/p>\n Russia<\/a> had adhered to the ceasefire to some extent, while continuing “combat operations in certain sectors, including the use of FPV drones and kamikaze drones<\/a>“, it added.<\/p>\n Russia’s defence ministry accused Kyiv of nearly 2,000 breaches of the truce.<\/p>\n Read more<\/span>Russia refuses to extend Easter truce unless Zelensky ‘accepts its terms’<\/a><\/p>\n “A total of 1,971 ceasefire violations by units of the Ukrainian armed forces were recorded between 4:00 pm Moscow time on April 12 and 8:00 am on April 12,” the ministry said on the state-pushed MAX messenger service.<\/p>\n Kyiv had fired 258 times using artillery or tanks, carried out 1,329 FPV drone strikes, and dropped “various types of munitions” on 375 occasions, notably via drones, Russia said.<\/p>\n Moscow also accused the Ukrainian military<\/a> of launching “three nighttime attacks” against Russian positions and also “four attempts to advance” along the front line, adding that it had thwarted each one.<\/p>\n Zelensky had called for a longer ceasefire in his evening address Saturday, saying Ukraine had put the proposal to Russia.<\/p>\n But in comments aired Sunday, the Kremlin<\/a>‘s spokesman Dmitry Peskov rejected any extension unless the Ukrainian leader accepted Russia\u2019s “well-known” terms.<\/p>\n “Until Zelensky musters the courage to assume this responsibility, the special military operation will continue after the truce expires,” Peskov added, referring to the war in Ukraine.<\/p>\n In a sign that the truce had some effect, the Ukrainian army said it had recorded no long-range Shahed drone attacks, guided aerial bombings or missile strikes.<\/p>\n Ukraine has had to deal with barrages of hundreds of Russian drones on a near-nightly basis, prompting retaliation from Kyiv.<\/p>\n In northeastern Ukraine’s Kharkiv region, Lieutenant Colonel Vasyl Kobziak told AFP on Sunday morning that things were “rather calm” in his sector.<\/p>\n While the 32-year-old officer said the truce had not been “fully” observed, the lull had allowed his soldiers of the 33rd Mechanised Brigade to attend an Easter<\/a> Sunday mass outside in the freezing forest chill.<\/p>\n‘Holiday joy’<\/h2>\n