May 11 (Reuters) – Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskiy said on Monday that Russia has no intention of ending the more than four-year-old war with his country and Kyiv was preparing for further attacks.
Zelenskiy made his comments as a U.S.-mediated ceasefire linked to Russia’s 81st anniversary of the Soviet victory over Nazi Germany drew to a close, with each side accusing the other of violating it. He also spoke two days after Russian President Vladimir Putin suggested the conflict was coming to an end.
“Today there was no silence on the front line. Combat actions have continued,” Zelenskiy said in his nightly video address.
“Russia has no intention of ending this war. And we are, unfortunately, preparing for new attacks. But peace must come. That is exactly what we are working for.”
Both sides reported fighting along their long front line despite the ceasefire, and each accused the other of launching drone and artillery strikes.
Ukraine and Russia agreed on Friday to a May 9 to May 11 ceasefire as part of a U.S.-led push for peace under President Donald Trump after more than four years of war triggered by Russia’s full-scale invasion in 2022.
Trump said on Friday he hoped the ceasefire would be extended, but it was already showing signs of strain on Sunday.
PUTIN SUGGESTS WAR ENDING
Putin said on Saturday, after the Victory Day commemorations, that he thought the war was coming to an end. He said he would be willing to negotiate new security arrangements for Europe, with Germany’s former chancellor, Gerhard Schroeder, as his preferred partner.
But European foreign ministers, meeting in Brussels on Monday, rejected Putin’s suggestion about Schroeder. They dismissed any role for Schroeder, who has worked for Russian state companies and cultivated a close relationship with Putin.
Zelenskiy said on Sunday Moscow had refrained from large-scale aerial and missile attacks but had continued assaults along parts of the 1,200-km (745-mile) front line where Russian forces are advancing. He said Ukrainian troops were responding and defending their positions.
Russian state news agencies reported on Monday that Russia’s Defence Ministry had said it had recorded 23,802 ceasefire violations by Ukraine since the start of the ceasefire. Russian troops had responded in kind to Ukrainian attacks, the ministry was quoted as saying.
One person was killed and three wounded in a Ukrainian attack on Russia’s southern Belgorod region, Russian state news agency TASS cited the regional governor as saying on Monday.
The General Staff of Ukraine’s military, in a Monday morning report, said 180 battlefield clashes had been recorded along the front line over the previous 24 hours.
The General Staff said on Monday afternoon that Russian troops had carried out 38 new assaults on Ukrainian positions, adding: “Artillery shelling of border areas continues.”
Regional governors in Ukraine reported on Monday that at least three people had been killed in the southeastern Zaporizhzhia and southern Kherson regions over the past 24 hours.
(Reporting by Anna Pruchnicka and Lucy Papachristou; Editing by Timothy Heritage, Ron Popeski and Sanjeev Miglani)
