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Both Ukrainian and Russian sources accused each other of limited violations of the Kremlin’s unilateral short-term, theater-wide ceasefire over the Orthodox Easter holiday on April 11 and 12. The Ukrainian General Staff reported on April 12 that Russian forces violated the ceasefire 2,299 times as of 0700 local time on April 12, including launching 28 ground assaults, 479 artillery strikes, 747 Lancet loitering munitions and Molniya fixed-wing first-person view (FPV) drone strikes, and 767 other FPV drone strikes. The Ukrainian General Staff reported that Russian forces did not carry out missile, guided glide bomb, or Shahed long-range strike drone strikes after the start of the ceasefire. Ukrainian officials reported on April 11 and 12 that Russian forces continued artillery and FPV drone strikes after the start of the ceasefire in the Lyman and Pokrovsk directions and in Kharkiv and Dnipropetrovsk oblasts. Sumy Oblast officials reported that Russian forces conducted a drone strike against an ambulance in Hlukhivska Hromada, Sumy Oblast, overnight on April 11 to 12, injuring three medics. Ukrainian officials also reported that Russian forces conducted Molniya drone strikes in Kharkiv Oblast that damaged a store and injured two civilians in Zolochiv and damaged buildings in Klynova-Novoselivka and Odnorobivka, and that a Molniya drone fell in a garden in Derhachi on April 12 but did not result in casualties.
Russian forces committed a war crime in Kharkiv Oblast, reportedly amid the Easter ceasefire on April 11. The Ukrainian Prosecutor General’s Office published footage and reported on April 12 that Russian forces executed four Ukrainian prisoners of war (POWs) on April 11 after entering Ukrainian positions near Veterynarne (north of Kharkiv City). Ukrainian 14th Army Corps (AC) Spokesperson Vitaliy Sarantsev reported on April 12 that Russian forces launched an assault near Veterynarne after 1400 local time on April 11, ahead of the ceasefire, and that the assault lasted several hours and resulted in the seizure of Ukrainian positions. The spokesperson emphasized that Russian forces shot the unarmed Ukrainian servicemembers after the start of the ceasefire at 1600 local time. The execution of POWs is a war crime that violates the Geneva Convention on the Treatment of POWs. ISW continues to assess that the Russian military command is endorsing and sometimes ordering war crimes on the battlefield, including POW executions.
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