President Putin on Thursday declared a 32-hour ceasefire over the Orthodox Easter weekend, ordering Russian forces to halt hostilities from 4pm on Saturday until the end of Sunday. Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky promised to abide by the ceasefire, describing it as an opportunity to build on peace initiatives. But he warned there would be a swift military response to any violations. Russia quickly violated their own ceasefire after attacking Ukrainian positions with drones on Saturday evening, as Serhii Kolesnychenko, a communications officer for Ukraine's 148th Separate Artillery Brigade, said: 'The ceasefire is not being observed by the Russian side.' Mr Kolesnychenko said that while artillery fire had paused in the sector where his brigade was working, at the junction of the Donetsk, Dnipropetrovsk and Zaporizhzhia regions, Russian forces continued to use drones to strike Ukrainian positions. Ukrainian forces were responding with 'silence to silence and fire to fire', Mr Kolesnychenko said. Hours before the ceasefire was due to begin, Russia launched drone strikes across Ukraine. Pictured: A view of the aftermath following a Russian airstrike using KAB-250 guided bombs in the city centre of Kramatorsk, Ukraine, on April 11, 2026 According to the Ukrainian Air Force, Russia targeted Ukraine with 160 drones overnight, of which 133 were shot down or intercepted, hours before a proposed Easter ceasefire was due to come into force Ukraine's military command said on Facebook: 'After 4:00 pm, 469 ceasefire violations were recorded, namely: 22 enemy assault actions, 153 shelling attacks, 19 strikes by attack drones... and 275 strikes by FPV drones. 'Today in total, the enemy carried out 57 air strikes and dropped 182 guided aerial bombs. In addition, it deployed 3,928 kamikaze drones and conducted 2,454 shelling attacks on populated areas and positions of our troops'. The latest flare-up comes despite Moscow and Kyiv both signalling that the end of the war in Ukraine may be in sight. Russia's hardline foreign minister issued a surprise statement that 'the prospect of a political and diplomatic settlement is on the horizon.' At the same time, Ukraine's top negotiator Lt-Gen Kyrylo Budanov, 40, made clear Russia is shifting its stance. 'They all understand the war needs to end. That's why they are negotiating,' he told Bloomberg. 'I don't think it will be long.'