Russian attacks continue despite 'Easter truce', Zelenskyy says

Russian attacks on Ukraine continued overnight into Easter Sunday, Volodymyr Zelenskyy says - despite Vladimir Putin announcing a 30-hour "Easter truce".

The Ukrainian president said on social media that Russia was "trying to create a general impression of a ceasefire" but there had still been "attempts to advance and inflict losses on Ukraine". Follow latest: Zelenskyy accuses Russia of violating truce On Saturday, Mr Putin announced a 30-hour ceasefire lasting from 6pm on Saturday to midnight on Easter Sunday - both Moscow time, which is two hours ahead of the UK.

"Guided by humanitarian considerations... the Russian side declares an Easter truce," Mr Putin said at a meeting with chief of general staff Valery Gerasimov.

"I order that all military actions be stopped for this period. "We assume that the Ukrainian side will follow our example.

At the same time, our troops must be ready to repel possible violations of the truce and provocations from the enemy, any of its aggressive actions." Mr Zelenskyy claimed Russian attacks were continuing despite the truce announcement. He said there had been hundreds of instances of shelling on Saturday evening.

Early on Sunday, Ukrainian forces reported 59 instances of shelling and five assault attempts along the front line, he said. He reiterated that Kyiv was willing to extend the ceasefire for 30 days but said that if Russia kept fighting on Sunday, so would Ukraine.

"Ukraine will continue to act in a mirror manner," he said. Mr Putin's truce suggestion came soon after Donald Trump threatened to "take a pass" on Ukraine peace talks, after months of efforts have failed to bring an end to the fighting.

On Friday, the US president said negotiations between Ukraine and Russia are "coming to a head" and insisted that neither side is "playing" him in his push to end the grinding three-year war. Mr Trump spoke shortly after secretary of state Marco Rubio warned that the US may "move on" from trying to secure a Russia-Ukraine peace deal if there was no progress in the coming days.

Read more:Why Putin has suddenly offered an 'Easter truce'Rubio's tough talk shows Trump's frustration Shortly after the ceasefire was announced, Ukraine's foreign minister Andrii Sybiha‎ said there had been a "long history" of Mr Putin's words not "matching his actions". "We know his words cannot be trusted and we will look at actions, not words," he added.

The ceasefire announcement has echoes of January 2023, when Mr Putin ordered his forces in Ukraine to observe a 36-hour truce for Orthodox Christmas. At that time, Mr Zelenskyy stopped short of stating his forces would reject Mr Putin's request, but dismissed the Russian move as playing for time to regroup its invasion forces and prepare additional attacks.

Prisoner exchange It comes as Ukraine and Russia conducted a swap of more than 500 prisoners of war on Saturday, the latest in a series of exchanges since Russia launched a full-scale invasion more than three years ago. Mr Zelenskyy, in a post on the Telegram messaging app, said 277 Ukrainian service personnel had returned home from Russian captivity.

Russia's defence ministry said 246 servicemen had been handed over by Kyiv. It said a further 31 injured prisoners of war had been handed over to Ukraine and 15 of its own wounded servicemen had also been returned by Kyiv..