Thanks for following our protection of the battle in Ukraine right this moment.
We’re pausing our reside updates for now – earlier than we go, this is a abstract of the day’s key developments:
Putin’s ‘Easter truce’ expires
Vladimir Putin’s 30-hour “Easter truce” has come to an finish after the Kremlin confirmed the Russian president wouldn’t be extending the ceasefire.
Regardless of Putin’s pledge to “stop all navy operations” either side have been accusing one another of breaking the truce.
Moscow insisted its navy teams have “strictly abided” by the ceasefire, and mentioned Ukrainian forces shot at Russian positions greater than 444 occasions, whereas it counted greater than 900 drone assaults.
In the meantime, Volodymyr Zelenskyy mentioned Russia’s military had violated Putin’s ceasefire “greater than 2,000 occasions” together with not less than 1,355 circumstances of Russian shelling.
Zelenskyy proposes pause on some long-range strikes
However the Ukrainian president continued to name for an extended pause, and proposed to “stop any strikes utilizing long-range drones and missiles on civilian infrastructure” for not less than 30 days.
“If Russia doesn’t comply with such a step, it will likely be proof that it intends to proceed doing solely these issues which destroy human lives and lengthen the battle,” Zelenskyy added.
We additionally heard from Donald Trump for the primary time since Putin introduced his “Easter truce”.
The US president took to Fact Social to say he hopes Russia and Ukraine will make a deal this week, stating they might then have the ability to do “massive enterprise” with the US.
RAF scrambled to intercept Russian jets
Away from the state of affairs on the battlefield, the UK Ministry of Defence mentioned RAF fighter jets had been scrambled earlier this week to defend NATO airspace from Russian warplanes.
Two Typhoons had been scrambled from Malbork air base in Poland on 15 April to intercept a Russian intelligence plane over the Baltic Sea.
On 17 April, one other two Typhoons scrambled from the bottom to intercept an unknown plane leaving Kaliningrad airspace, near NATO airspace.
Troops attend Easter providers on the frontline
We have additionally been offering you with image updates exhibiting Ukrainian and Russian troops attending Easter providers on the frontline.
Scroll to see the very best footage beneath – the primary three photographs present Ukrainian servicemen at a service, whereas the opposite three present Russian troopers.