The Kremlin is still claiming that Russia is sticking to Donald Trump’s partial ceasefire agreement in Ukraine – despite evidence to the contrary.
Vladimir Putin spoke to the US president on March 18 and they supposedly agreed that Russia would not strike Ukraine’s energy and infrastructure for the next 30 days.
Kyiv then said it had also agreed to the same conditions during Ukrainian president Volodymyr Zelenskyy’s own exchange with Trump.
But, five days after this deal was supposedly struck, Zelenskyy claimed on X that Russia was still launching drones “every night, every single day” across Ukraine.
Three people were reported to have died from a Russian drone attack in the occupied Ukrainian city of Zaporizhzhia on Saturday after Putin fired off 179 drones and decoys in a wave of attacks.
Kyiv also accused Russia of breaching the ceasefire deal just hours after the phone call with Trump – although the US later excused those attacks by claiming they were launched before the partial truce was agreed.
Moscow appears to have rejected these accusations.
Kremlin spokesperson Dmitry Peskov told reporters on Monday that the “pause” in strikes on Ukraine is ongoing.
According to Russian state news agency TASS, he said: “So far, there have been no new commands from the president.
“Our armed forces are executing all directives from the supreme commander-in-chief.”
Russian state media has accused Ukrainian forces of breaching the ceasefire instead.
It claims Russia’s air defence system shot down 47 Ukrainian drones on Saturday.
TASS reported that it was Ukraine who repeatedly breached the terms of the partial ceasefire on both March 19 and March 21, too.
Ukraine’s General Staff hit out at Moscow for its claims last week, saying: “The Russians continue to produce numerous fakes and seek to mislead the international community.”
The Telegraph reported over the weekend that Trump is growing increasingly angry with the ongoing missile and drone strikes.
One source close to the Trump administration told the newspaper the president “will get frustrated” if the two sides keep “bombing infrastructure”.
Representatives from the US and Ukraine are meeting today in Saudi Arabia for “technical discussions” on what a peace deal could look like.
While the White House has expressed growing optimism that the conflict could soon be resolved – and is reportedly aiming to secure a truce by Easter Sunday – Russia seems to be sending signals to the contrary.
Peskov told journalists that “we are only at the beginning of this path” to ending the war.