This week, battles continued to rage along the front lines. Ukraine keeps striking oil refineries and military sites deep inside Russia with the attacks becoming increasingly painful for Moscow. At the same time, Russia has largely stepped up its aerial terror of near-front areas and strikes against civilians.
Ukraine’s long-range strikes against Russian oil infrastructure expose inefficiency of Russia’s air defenses, the Institute for the Study of War said early in the week. Russian milbloggers continued to criticize the ineffectiveness of Russian air defense systems, citing air defense solutions used by Ukraine as an example. A drone strike by Ukraine’s defense intelligence on Monday disabled Russia’s last railway ferry in the Kerch Strait. NORSI, Russia’s fourth-largest oil refinery, suspended operations on April 5 following a Ukrainian drone attack, Reuters said Tuesday. Ukraine launched more cross-border attack drones than Russia in a one-month period for the first time since the invasion, ABC News said, relying on daily data published by the Ukrainian Air Force and Russian Ministry of Defense.
Russia stepped up its aerial attacks against civilians, a trend clearly visible as it struck the regions of Dnipro, Chernihiv and Kherson in a few days’ span. City markets, buses, civilian infrastructure sites and trains are frequent targets of Russian attacks.
Ukraine continues to develop relations with the countries in the Middle East. Ukrainian military experts will continue to work there after a U.S.-Iran ceasefire was announced, Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyi said on Wednesday.
According to media reports, the Trump administration is expected to keep waiving Russian oil sanctions. The U.S. is ignoring evidence that Russia is helping Iran because it trusts Putin, Zelenskyi said in an interview this week.
Putin announces 32-hour Easter ceasefire with Ukraine.
Russian leader Vladimir Putin has declared a 32-hour Easter ceasefire in Ukraine. His decree, released by the Kremlin on Thursday, orders Russian forces to observe a ceasefire starting on 4 p.m. local time on Saturday, April 11 and lasting until the end of Sunday.
The Kremlin said it assumed that “the Ukrainian side will follow the example of the Russian Federation.” Putin also ordered his forces to be ready to intercept “possible enemy provocations” and any “aggressive actions.” Orthodox Easter falls this year on April 12.
Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyi had for more than a week proposed an Easter ceasefire. He also said Monday that he stood by a proposal made to Russia for a ceasefire contingent on Moscow halting all attacks on energy infrastructure. “Ukraine has repeatedly stated that we are ready for symmetrical steps. We proposed a ceasefire during the Easter holidays this year and will act accordingly,” Zelenskyi said in a post to X on Friday.
Kremlin spokesperson Dmitry Peskov said on March 31 that Moscow had not seen a “clearly formulated” initiative from Zelenskyi regarding an Easter truce, dismissing the proposal.