- The ceasefire negotiated by the United States now appears to be seriously tested.
- 200 clashes have taken place since Saturday: Ukrainian officials.
- Zelenskiy expects the United States to guarantee the exchange of 1,000 prisoners.
The U.S.-brokered ceasefire between Russia and Ukraine appeared under serious strain Sunday, with both sides accusing the other of violating the agreement in weekend attacks.
The three-day pause, announced Friday by President Donald Trump, is part of a broader peace campaign led by the United States, which has so far failed to end a more than four-year-old war, despite months of shuttle diplomacy.
Three people were killed in Russian drone strikes on areas near the front line, and more than 200 battlefield clashes have taken place since Saturday morning, Ukrainian officials reported Sunday.
President Volodymyr Zelenskiy said Russia had refrained from launching large-scale air and missile attacks, but had continued attacks on parts of the front where its forces were advancing.
“In other words, the Russian army does not observe any silence on the front and does not even particularly try to do so,” he said in his evening speech, adding that Ukrainian troops were responding and defending their positions.
On Sunday, the Russian Defense Ministry accused Ukraine of ignoring the pause, saying it had shot down 57 Ukrainian drones over the past day and “responded in kind” on the battlefield.
Zelenskiy said he expected the United States to guarantee the exchange of 1,000 prisoners of war from each side part of the deal.
Earlier this week, Russia and Ukraine each announced separate ceasefires — starting Friday and Wednesday, respectively — but quickly accused each other of breaking them.
Dead and injured in Ukraine
One person was killed in Ukraine’s Zaporizhzhia, Dnipropetrovsk and Kherson regions in Russian drone attacks, regional governors and police said in separate reports on Sunday.
In the northeastern Kharkiv region, Governor Oleh Syniehubov said eight people, including two children, were injured in drone strikes on the regional capital and nearby settlements.
Seven people, including a child, have also been injured in the Kherson region during drone or artillery attacks since Saturday morning, regional governor Oleksandr Prokudin said on Sunday.
The National Emergency Situations Service said Russian forces attacked one of its rescue vehicles with a drone in the Dnipropetrovsk region, injuring a 23-year-old driver.
kyiv’s air force said Russia launched 27 long-range drones into Ukraine overnight – a lower number than usual – but air defenses shot them all down.
Ukraine’s General Staff said Sunday afternoon that nearly 210 clashes had taken place along the sprawling 1,200-kilometer front line since Saturday morning.
Reuters could not immediately verify reports from the battlefield.
Diplomacy at a standstill
Russian forces are launching an offensive to seize remaining parts of Ukraine’s eastern Donetsk region, which Moscow has demanded kyiv cede before considering ending its war.
Peace talks between kyiv and Moscow, backed by the United States, are deadlocked over this issue, as well as over control of the Russian-occupied Zaporizhzhia nuclear power plant, the largest in Europe.
Russian officials sent mixed signals on Saturday, with Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov saying peace in Ukraine was “very far away” while President Vladimir Putin suggested the war was “coming to an end.”
US envoy Steve Witkoff and Jared Kushner will travel to Moscow “fairly early” to continue negotiations with Russia, the Interfax news agency said on Sunday, reporting that Kremlin adviser Yuri Ushakov.
On Friday, kyiv’s top negotiator, Rustem Umerov, said he met with Witkoff and Kushner in Miami for discussions on humanitarian issues and to “coordinate further steps” toward peace.
Separately, Germany on Sunday rejected a suggestion by Putin that former Chancellor Gerhard Schroeder could coordinate negotiations with the European Union to reach a peace deal in Ukraine.
