Ukraine-Russia war live: Putin bombards Ukraine with huge air raid moments after Easter truce expires

Russia bombarded Ukrainian territories with drones and missiles just minutes after the Easter truce ended at midnight, waking up Kyiv and the eastern half of the country to the sound of sirens.

Air raid sirens were sounded in capital Kyiv as well as Kherson, Dnipropetrovsk, Cherkasy, Mykolaiv and Zaporizhzhia.

Officials in the port city of Mykolaiv said that it had been hit by Russian missiles.

The Kremlin on Monday said the 30-hour easter truce announced from 6pm on 19 April to 21 April midnight had expired.

Ukraine has accused Russia of continuing to carry out thousands of attacks, even during its self-declared ceasefire.

There were no immediate reports of injuries or major damages from the attacks, regional Ukrainian officials said on social media as the scale of the bombardment was being ascertained.

Dozens of released Ukrainian prisoners of war embraced loved ones in emotional reunions after they were returned from Russian captivity.

Ukrainian president Volodymyr Zelensky said 277 Ukrainian soldiers were returned in the war’s largest exchange on Saturday (19 April).

Most Ukrainians were young people born after 2000, Ukraine’s Coordination Headquarters for the Treatment of Prisoners of War said.

Since Russia’s invasion began, a total of 4,552 Ukrainians, both military and civilians, have been returned.

Thousands of prisoners of war remain in captivity.

Saturday’s exchange was the 63rd since the start of the war.

Russian foreign ministry spokesperson Maria Zakharova said Ukraine used US-made HIMARS MLRS systems to violate the Easter truce.

“It (the ceasefire) was not observed by the Kiev regime during Easter. Notably, the used American weapons, HIMARS systems, to violate it,” she wrote on her Telegram channel.

She said Ukraine struck civilian energy infrastructure during the moratorium, which was expected by the Russian government.

The Russian defence ministry said it repelled attacks by Ukrainian armed forces on Russian troops near Sukha Balka and Bogatyr in the Donetsk People’s Republic at night.

It said Ukrainian forces used 48 UAVs, including one on the territory of Crimea, firing 444 times.

America’s HIMARS system stands for High Mobility Artillery Rocket System. It’s a highly mobile rocket launcher system developed by the United States and manufactured by Lockheed Martin.

Ukrainians gathered together to mark Easter, with little faith in the possibility of a ceasefire with Russia as both sides accused the other of breaking a temporary truce.

In the village of Lukashivka in the Chernihiv region, briefly occupied by Russian forces in 2022, parishioners of the damaged Ascension Church arrived early at a small makeshift wooden church built last year to cater to the needs of the faithful, holding traditional Easter baskets and cakes to have them blessed.

As the sun rose, they stood quietly in the spring chill, the roofless silhouette of the wrecked church behind them, its pale walls scarred by shell fragments. The church’s priest Serhii Zezul walked among them, shouting “Christ is risen!” as he sprinkled holy water over the baskets – his voice nearly drowned out by the hum of a nearby generator.

More people than usual gathered in the damaged church’s courtyard on Sunday.

For 26 years, 44-year-old Olha Rudeno attended church in the nearby city of Chernihiv, where she got married. “But given the war, it’s psychologically difficult for me to go where there are large gatherings in cities,” she said.

That sin – better understood as an international crime that led to more crimes against humanity – was the 2014 invasion of Ukraine, and the 2022 attempt at a full-scale Anschluss, along with the mass murder and deliberate targeting of civilians that followed.

“The total number of violations by the Russian army of Russia’s own ceasefire promise throughout the day [Sunday] reached 2,935,” Zelensky said.

The Independent’s world affairs editor Sam Kiley explains.

A Moscow court has found Google guilty of disclosing personal data of members of the Russian armed forces who died in Ukraine, Russia’s TASS news agency reported on Monday, citing court documents.

The documents say that in a video published on YouTube, information on Russia’s losses in Ukraine, as well as the personal data of Russian soldiers, were disclosed.

Russia has for several years ordered foreign technology platforms to remove content it deems illegal, such as what it calls “fake” news about the war in Ukraine, issuing small but persistent fines when it sees failures to comply.

Russia’s president Vladimir Putin accused Google in December of being a tool used by the US government to score political points.

Some regions in eastern Ukraine were under air raid alerts starting minutes after midnight on Monday, according to data from the Ukrainian air force, with the alerts gradually extending towards the central regions of the country.

“We urge city residents to immediately go to the nearest shelters and remain there until the alert is over,” Kyiv’s military administration said in a social media post at 4.41am local time (0141 GMT).

Blasts shook the Ukrainian port city of Mykolaiv, mayor Oleksandr Senkevich said on Telegram. He did not say whether it was air defence systems in operation or whether the Russian weapons hit their targets.

Russia’s Voronezh region, which borders Ukraine, was also under air raid alerts for two hours overnight, the region’s governor said on Telegram.

Ukrainian president Volodymyr Zelensky issued an updated number of Russian strikes carried out during Moscow’s own Easter truce, including against civilian targets.

“The total number of violations by the Russian army of Russia’s own ceasefire promise throughout the day reached 2,935. The highest number of shellings and assaults occurred in the Pokrovsk direction,” he said.

“Russia’s promise of a full ceasefire also did not apply to the Kursk direction. Overall, across the frontline, there were 96 Russian assaults, 1,882 instances of shelling on our positions, including 812 involving heavy weaponry, and over 950 instances of FPV drone use by Russian forces,” he added.

He said ceasefire will be met with ceasefire, and Russian strikes will be met with our own in defence going forward.

US president Donald Trump, who says he wants to be remembered as a peacemaker, has repeatedly warned of the escalation risk of the war – which his administration now casts as a proxy conflict between the US and Russia, echoing Moscow’s stance.

Last month, after Ukraine accepted Mr Trump’s proposal for a 30-day truce, Russian president Vladimir Putin said crucial issues of verification had not been sorted out. Both Moscow and Kyiv have agreed to a moratorium on attacks on energy targets and at sea, which each accuses the other of breaking.

In a Truth Social post, he has said he hopes Russia and Ukraine will make a deal this week to end the conflict in Ukraine.

“BOTH WILL THEN START TO DO BIG BUSINESS WITH THE UNITED STATES OF AMERICA, WHICH IS THRIVING, AND MAKE A FORTUNE!” he said in a post on Truth Social.

Ukrainian president Volodymyr Zelensky reiterated that Kyiv was willing to extend the Easter ceasefire for 30 days.

Russia controls just under one-fifth of Ukraine, including Crimea, which Moscow annexed in 2014, and the regions of Luhansk, Donetsk, Zaporizhzhia and Kherson.

Ukraine’s air force issued air raid alerts for Kyiv and the eastern half of Ukraine early on Monday, hours after the end of the one-day Easter ceasefire declared by Russian president Vladimir Putin.

Blasts have hit the eastern city of Mykolaiv as the sirens rang, the city mayor said.

The strikes marked an end to the 30-hour unilateral truce declared by Russia, even as Mr Putin’s forces were accused of violating the ceasefire.

Ukrainian president Volodymyr Zelensky said Russia’s violation of its “own ceasefire promise throughout the day reached 2,935.

Russia’s defence ministry responded that Ukraine was not adhering to the ceasefire and continued shelling at Russian targets.