Ukraine-Russia war live: Easter ceasefire in doubt after one killed in Russian drone strikes – UK Times

Ukraine says at least one person has been killed and 15 injured by Russian drone strikes ahead of the start of today’s Easter ceasefire.

The death occurred in Poltava, where a drone struck a shop and a cafe, killing one civilian and wounding another, officials told AFP. Separate strikes in Sumy injured 14 people including a 14-year-old boy and an 87-year-old woman.

The ceasefire marking Orthodox Easter was initially proposed by Volodymyr Zelensky. Russia’s Vladimir Putin has said his forces will cease fire from 4pm on Saturday until the end of Sunday, a span of 32 hours. A similar truce was agreed last year but marred by a number of reported violations.

In Kyiv, Ukrainians told reporters they were sceptical about how well the truce would be observed. “Even today, drones and missiles are still flying,” noted Dmytro Sova, a 42-year-old actor, to AFP. “If they want a ceasefire, then let them start it.”

A Russian court has ordered the detention of Oleg Roldugin, an investigative journalist for independent newspaper Novaya Gazeta, following his arrest a day earlier.

Roldugin was arrested on Thursday in a case involving alleged misuse ⁠of personal data following a search of his home and a raid by masked security agents on the offices of Novaya Gazeta, one of Russia’s best-known investigative outlets.

Russia has tightened its censorship laws and increased pressure on independent media since it launched its ⁠war in Ukraine in 2022. In another ​case ⁠this week, the FSB security service said it had detained a freelance journalist in Siberia on suspicion of treason.

State media on Thursday published ⁠a brief video clip of Roldugin’s arrest, showing him being bundled into a ​van ⁠by masked men. Under Russian criminal ‌law, misuse of personal data carries a prison sentence of up to 10 years if it causes “grave consequences”.

Roldugin, standing in a glass box in the courtroom ‌on Friday, told reporters he was innocent.

Nato member Estonia says it cannot afford to detain ​Russia’s “shadow fleet” vessels in the Baltic Sea and risk the chance Moscow will respond with military force.

Britain and other European nations, including France, Belgium and ⁠Sweden, have stepped up efforts to detain ageing oil tankers used by Moscow to evade sanctions and secure vital funding for its four-year war against Ukraine.

But Estonia, the northernmost Baltic state located close to Russia’s main oil and fuel export facilities in the Gulf of Finland, is practising restraint after an unsuccessful ⁠attempt to board a Russian vessel last year.

“The ​risk ⁠of military escalation is just too high,” Estonia’s Navy Commander Ivo Vark told Reuters.

In May 2025 Estonia said Moscow sent a fighter jet into Nato airspace ⁠over the Baltic Sea during an Estonian attempt to stop an unflagged Russia-bound oil ​tanker ⁠it believed was defying Western sanctions.

The jet ‌eventually escorted the oil tanker into Russian waters.

Volodymyr Zelensky said Ukrainian forces shot down Shahed drones for the US and its allies in the Middle East after they launched a war against Iran, in a rare disclosure of Kyiv’s involvement in the conflict.

Mr Zelensky said the anti-drone operations were a part of a broader effort to help partners counter similar weapons as those used by Russia in Ukraine.

This marks the first public acknowledgement of Kyiv’s assistance to the US and its allies in the region. It comes days after the US and Iran reached a tentative ceasefire.

People on the streets of Kyiv were wary of an Easter truce with Russia, recalling that previous such truces had been quickly violated.

Russian President Vladimir Putin on Thursday announced a 32-hour ceasefire starting on Saturday afternoon and running throughout Orthodox Easter until midnight on Sunday.

“He can only make promises about some ceasefire. No one is going to hand over our land to him,” said 60-year-old Yuliia, huddled beneath a thick overcoat, as a street thermometer showed 2 degrees Celsius in Kyiv.

Putin’s announcement was similar to a 30-hour ceasefire he ordered last year. Each side accused the other of violating it.

“Every year it’s the same old ‘ceasefire, ceasefire’. Even on one of the New Year’s Eve, when they promised a ceasefire, there was an air raid alarm all night long,” said Varvara, a 17-year-old student who declined to give her second name.

“Well, of course I want to believe it, but no, I don’t think it’s going to happen.”

Our community is divided over Ukraine’s draft crisis. While some empathised with those fearing the front line, others stressed the duty to fight, and many debated how the army could be better organised:

Ukraine and Russia are moving towards a potential deal to end the war, Bloomberg News reported on Friday, citing the top aide to Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky.

Kyrylo Budanov, a former head of Ukraine’s military intelligence, said that he saw progress towards a deal, but declined to say what a potential compromise on territory, a key stumbling block, would look like.

“No final decision has been made yet,” he said, according to the report. “But, in principle, everyone now clearly understands the limits of what is acceptable. That’s enormous progress.”

“They all understand the war needs to end. That’s why they are negotiating,” Budanov said in an interview with Bloomberg on April 4. “I don’t think it will be long.”

A Russian court on Friday ordered Oleg Roldugin, an investigative journalist for the independent newspaper Novaya Gazeta, to be placed in pre-trial detention until May 10.

Roldugin was detained on Thursday in a case involving alleged misuse of personal data following a search of his home and a raid by masked security agents on the offices of Novaya Gazeta, one of Russia’s best-known investigative outlets.