Ukraine war briefing: Russia responds to Zelenskyy’s Easter truce offer with drone attack

Ukrainian president says ceasefire could show diplomacy works, while Russia dismisses statement as ‘PR stunt’.

What we know on day 1,499 Volodymyr Zelenskyy has criticised Russia for responding to an offer of an Easter truce with airstrikes .

The Ukrainian president said on Wednesday he had spoken to US negotiators about an Easter ceasefire but Russian forces had fired more than 700 drones – many of them Iranian-designed Shaheds – targeting parts of western and central Ukraine in a rare daytime attack.

Zelenskyy said: “Russia is responding [to the Easter ceasefire offer] with Shahed drones and continues its terrorist operations against our energy sector, against our infrastructure,” adding that he had discussed ways of advancing diplomacy with US negotiators. “A silence over Easter could be exactly the signal that tells everyone that diplomacy can be successful.” Russia’s foreign ministry rejected Zelenskyy’s proposal as a “PR stunt”.

The Ukraine president said talks with US mediators aimed at resolving the four-year conflict were “positive” .

The talks were held remotely on Wednesday with the US special envoy, Steve Witkoff, Donald Trump’s son-in-law Jared Kushner and the US senator Lindsey Graham, with Nato’s secretary general, Mark Rutte, also joining the call amid the alliance’s continuing tensions with Washington.

Zelenskyy thanked the US for its efforts to bring about peace and said the Ukrainian and US teams had agreed to strengthen a document outlining US security guarantees for any future peace deal. “This is precisely what could pave the way for a reliable end to the war.” In recent weeks Zelenskyy said the US had been pressuring Ukraine to make concessions to bring a quick end to the conflict after the US and Israel launched the war on Iran in late February.

Talks with Russia are deadlocked over the question of land, with Ukraine refusing to cede to Moscow’s demands that it relinquish the eastern region of Donbas.

Russia claimed to have full control of Ukraine’s Luhansk region on Wednesday, which Kyiv denied.

Russia’s defence ministry claimed its forces had taken control of the entire Luhansk region – part of the Donbas – but a Ukrainian military official said small areas were still held by Ukrainian forces.

Russia has previously made false claims of advances.

The Russian defence ministry said in a statement: “Units have completed the liberation of the Luhansk people’s republic.” But Viktor Tregubov, a spokesperson for Ukrainian force

原文链接: The Guardian