Easter Ceasefire Bid Met With Intensified Russian Strikes, Zelenskiy Reports

 

    A firefighter inspects a compound of a private enterprise hit by a Russian missile strike, in Chernihiv, Ukraine.

Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskiy says Russia has sharply escalated its aerial attacks in response to Kyiv’s proposal for an Easter ceasefire, turning what was intended to be a period of calm into one of the most intense bombardments in recent weeks.

According to Ukraine’s air force, Russia launched a rolling wave of assaults beginning Thursday evening, deploying over 400 long‑range drones and multiple ballistic missiles aimed largely at frontline regions. Officials say Moscow is experimenting with new flight routes, upgraded drones, and revised tactics to probe and overwhelm Ukrainian air defenses. 

The escalation mirrors an earlier attack this week, when an overnight drone barrage of more than 300 drones was followed by another large‑scale strike in broad daylight—an increasingly common pattern that disrupts public services, transportation, and government operations across the country. 

In the Kharkiv region, local authorities reported one death and 25 injuries from a combination of missile, bomb, and drone strikes over the past 24 hours. Four ballistic missiles hit the city of Kharkiv overnight, though only one injury was confirmed from that specific attack. 

Zelenskiy condemned the timing of the strikes, noting that instead of honoring a proposed Easter truce, Russia “intensified their strikes, turning what should have been silence in the skies into an Easter escalation.”