Ukraine, Russia trade accusations of violating US-backed ceasefire

Highlights:

• Ceasefire shows strain on second day
• Ukrainian officials report three killed in attacks
• Wider US-backed peace push remains stalled

A US-mediated ceasefire between Russia and Ukraine appeared under serious strain on its second day on Sunday, with both sides accusing the other of violating the deal through weekend attacks.

The three-day pause, announced on Friday by President Donald Trump, is part of a ‌broader US-led push for peace that has so far failed to end the 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 had taken place since early Saturday, Ukrainian officials reported on Sunday.

President Volodymyr Zelenskiy said Russia had refrained from large-scale aerial and missile attacks but continued assaults along parts of the front where its forces are advancing.

"In other words, the Russian army is not observing any silence on the front and is not even particularly trying to," ⁠he said in his evening address, adding that Ukrainian troops were responding and defending their positions.

On Sunday, Russia's Defence Ministry accused Ukraine of flouting the pause, saying it had downed 57 Ukrainian drones over the past day and "responded in kind" on the battlefield.

Zelenskiy said he expected the US to guarantee a swap of 1,000 prisoners of war from each side that had been part of the deal.

Earlier this week, Russia and Ukraine had each announced separate ceasefires - starting on Friday and Wednesday respectively - but quickly accused one another of breaking them.

Dead and wounded in Ukraine

One person each in Ukraine's Zaporizhzhia, Dnipropetrovsk and Kherson regions were killed 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 wounded in drone strikes on the regional capital and nearby settlements.

Seven people, including a child, were also wounded in the Kherson ‌region ⁠in drone or artillery attacks since early Saturday, regional governor Oleksandr Prokudin said on Sunday.

The State Emergencies Service said Russian forces attacked one of its rescue vehicles in the Dnipropetrovsk region with a drone, wounding a 23-year-old driver.

Kyiv's air force said Russia had launched 27 long-range drones at Ukraine overnight - a lower number than usual - but that air defences had downed all of them.

Ukraine's General Staff said on Sunday afternoon that nearly 210 clashes had taken place along the sprawling, 1,200-km front line since early Saturday.

Reuters ⁠could not immediately verify the battlefield reports.

Stalled diplomacy

Russian forces are pressing an offensive to seize the remaining parts of Ukraine's eastern Donetsk region, which Moscow has demanded Kyiv cede before it considers ending its war.

US-backed peace talks between Kyiv and Moscow have stalled over the matter, as well as over control of the Russian-occupied Zaporizhzhia nuclear power ⁠plant - Europe's largest.

Russian officials had sent mixed signals on Saturday, with Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov saying peace in Ukraine was a "very long way" away but President Vladimir Putin suggesting the war was "coming to an end".

US envoy Steve Witkoff and Jared Kushner will visit Moscow "soon enough" to continue talks with Russia, news agency ⁠Interfax reported Kremlin adviser Yuri Ushakov as saying on Sunday.

On Friday, Kyiv's top negotiator, Rustem Umerov, said he had met Witkoff and Kushner in Miami for talks on humanitarian issues and to "coordinate further steps" toward peace.

Separately, Germany on Sunday dismissed a suggestion by Putin that former Chancellor Gerhard Schroeder could coordinate talks with the European Union to secure a peace deal in Ukraine.