Ukrainian troops fired US-made HIMARS rockets instead of observing the ceasefire, the Russian Foreign Ministry said
Ukraine failed to uphold the 30-hour Easter ceasefire that expired on Monday, Russian Foreign Ministry spokeswoman Maria Zakharova has said.
She made her remarks on Sunday evening after the US State Department said it would welcome an extension of the short truce “beyond Sunday.”
“Well, the Kiev regime failed to observe it during Easter,” Zakharova wrote on Telegram. “Moreover, the [Ukrainian government] has violated the truce using American HIMARS systems,” she added.
“It is not a coincidence, but a pattern: during the moratorium on strikes on energy facilities, Zelensky – despite having agreed to it – was deliberately targeting civilian energy infrastructure,” Zakharova wrote.
Ukrainian leader Vladimir Zelensky said he would respect the temporary ceasefire announced by Russian President Vladimir Putin if Moscow stayed true to its word. The Russian Defense Ministry, however, recorded more than 1,300 artillery and drone attacks after the truce took effect at 6 pm local time on Saturday. Zelensky, in turn, accused Russia of around 3,000 violations on Sunday.
According to the Russian MOD, Ukraine regularly targeted fuel depots and parts of the power grid during the 30-day energy truce brokered last month by the US. One of the largest breaches occurred on May 21, when Ukraine struck a gas metering station in Sudzha, which is part of a major pipeline used to deliver gas to the EU, the Defense Ministry said.
