Zelenskiy accuses Russia of ‘Easter escalation’
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A large-scale daytime Russian strike has killed at least two people in Ukraine, officials say, in what President Volodymyr Zelenskiy denounced as an “Easter escalation” as Russian forces shift tactics to avoid Ukrainian air defences.
Since the beginning of the war more than four years ago, Russia has mainly carried out major drone and missile strikes at night.
In recent weeks, it has repeatedly sent hundreds of drones and missiles during the daytime, setting a record for the number of weapons used in one such strike on March 24.
Russia launched hundreds of “Shahed combat drones and dozens of missiles against our cities and towns,” Zelenskiy wrote in a social media post after a telephone conversation with Pope Leo XIV.
On Friday, drones struck residential and civilian infrastructure in central Zhytomyr and Kyiv regions, killing one person in each, their governors said on the Telegram app.
“Essentially, the Russians have only intensified their strikes, turning what should have been silence in the skies into an Easter escalation,” President Volodymyr Zelenskiy said on X.
Earlier this week, Zelenskiy proposed a halt in strikes for Easter holidays, which fall next week according to the Julian calendar followed by Orthodox churches in Ukraine and Russia, and said Ukraine would reciprocate if Russia stopped attacks on the energy sector.
Zelenskiy told reporters that the ceasefire proposal had been communicated to Russia through US channels.
He added that the Kremlin’s response remains unclear.
“The purpose of these daytime strikes is clear. Russia is deliberately trying to increase the number of civilian victims, disrupt life, spread fear, and damage Ukraine’s infrastructure,” Prime Minister Yulia Svyrydenko said on X.
Ukraine has destroyed 515 out of 542 drones and 26 out of 37 missiles launched by Russia since Thursday evening, Ukraine’s Air Force said on Telegram.
“We can see that the enemy is using new routes, new drones which they are constantly modernising, and new tactics,” Air Force spokesman Yurii Ihnat said on state television on Friday.
In the Kyiv region, a veterinary clinic was damaged in the strike alongside private houses, residential and administrative buildings.
About 20 animals were killed, Governor Mykola Kalashnyk said.
In Zhytomyr region, 18 buildings – including houses – were destroyed and over 100 were damaged, authorities said.
Poland has scrambled fighter jets even though there was no record of Polish airspace having been violated, its military said.
In the northeastern region of Kharkiv, two people were killed, and more than two dozen others were injured in missile, bomb and drone attacks over the past 24 hours, according to the region’s Governor Oleh Syniehubov.
“The current series of strikes has been perhaps the most intense since the start of the war and certainly the heaviest since the beginning of the year,” Kharkiv Mayor Ihor Terekhov said.
Russia’s Federal Security Service (FSB) said on Friday it had foiled an attack planned by Ukraine’s Security Service (SBU) against a senior law enforcement official near a business centre in Moscow, state-run RIA news agency reported.
“The SBU planned to remotely detonate the explosive device during the target’s visit to the business centre, having identified him through organised video surveillance,” the FSB said in a statement, without giving details on the intended target or when the attack was due to take place.
There was no immediate comment from Ukraine and Reuters was unable to immediately verify the details.
with DPA and AP
Reuters