- The US-brokered ceasefire appears to be under serious strain today.
- There have been 200 clashes since Saturday: Ukrainian officials.
- Zelenskiy hopes the United States will guarantee the exchange of 1,000 prisoners.
A US-brokered ceasefire between Russia and Ukraine appeared to be under serious strain in its second day on Sunday, with both sides accusing the other of violating the agreement through weekend attacks.
The three-day pause, announced Friday by President Donald Trump, is part of a broader U.S.-led push for peace that has so far failed to end a more than four-year war despite months of shuttle diplomacy.
Three people were killed in Russian drone strikes in areas near the front line, and more than 200 battlefield clashes have taken place since the early hours of Saturday, Ukrainian officials reported Sunday.
President Volodymyr Zelenskiy said Russia had refrained from large-scale air and missile strikes but continued strikes along parts of the front where its forces are advancing.
“In other words, the Russian army is not silent at all on the front and is not even particularly trying to do so,” he said in his afternoon speech, adding that Ukrainian troops were responding and defending their positions.
On Sunday, Russia’s Defense Ministry accused Ukraine of ignoring the pause, saying it had shot down 57 Ukrainian drones over the past day and “responded in kind” on the battlefield.
Zelenskiy said he hoped the United States would guarantee an exchange of 1,000 prisoners of war from each side that had been part of the deal.
Earlier this week, Russia and Ukraine had announced separate ceasefires (starting on Friday and Wednesday, respectively), but quickly accused each other of violating them.
Dead and injured in Ukraine
One person in the Ukrainian regions of Zaporizhzhia, Dnipropetrovsk and Kherson was killed in Russian drone strikes, regional governors and police said in separate reports on Sunday.
In the northeastern region of Kharkiv, Governor Oleh Syniehubov said eight people, including two children, were wounded in drone attacks on the regional capital and nearby settlements.
Seven people, including a child, were also injured in the Kherson region in drone or artillery attacks since early Saturday, regional governor Oleksandr Prokudin said on Sunday.
The State Emergency Service said Russian forces attacked one of its rescue vehicles in the Dnipropetrovsk region with a drone, injuring a 23-year-old driver.
kyiv’s air force said Russia had launched 27 long-range drones into Ukraine overnight – a smaller number than usual – but that air defenses had shot down all of them.
Ukraine’s General Staff said Sunday afternoon that nearly 210 clashes had occurred along the sprawling 1,200-kilometer front line since the early hours of Saturday.
Reuters I was not able to immediately verify the battlefield reports.
Stagnant diplomacy
Russian forces are pressing an offensive to seize the remaining parts of Ukraine’s eastern Donetsk region, which Moscow has demanded kyiv give up before considering ending its war.
Peace talks between kyiv and Moscow, backed by the United States, have stalled over the issue, as well as control of the Russian-occupied Zaporizhzhia nuclear power plant, the largest in Europe.
Russian officials had sent mixed signals on Saturday: Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov said peace in Ukraine was “very far” away, but President Vladimir Putin suggested the war was “coming to an end.”
US envoy Steve Witkoff and Jared Kushner will visit Moscow “very soon” to continue talks with Russia, the Interfax news agency reported to Kremlin adviser Yuri Ushakov on Sunday.
On Friday, kyiv’s top negotiator, Rustem Umerov, said he had met with Witkoff and Kushner in Miami to discuss humanitarian issues and “coordinate new steps” toward peace.
Separately, Germany on Sunday rejected a suggestion by Putin that former Chancellor Gerhard Schroeder could coordinate talks with the European Union to secure a peace deal in Ukraine.
