RT reported that the ceasefire on the occasion of the Christmas holiday between Russia and Ukraine ended at 0:00 on April 21 local time and the Kremlin officially confirmed that there was no direction from President Vladimir Putin to extend the agreement to temporarily suspend the fighting.
Meanwhile, both Moscow and Kiev accused each other of " breaking their commitments" when the sound of gunfire never stopped, even in the sacred moment of Christmas.
In a statement on the afternoon of April 20, Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov affirmed: "No new orders have been issued." That means the 30-hour ceasefire issued by President Putin at 6pm on April 19 will end as planned - at exactly 0:00 on April 21.
Although it was a "favorite" move made by President Putin with a call for the Ukrainian side to respond, the ceasefire appears to only exist on paper.
Less than 24 hours since its entry into force, the Russian Defense Ministry said Ukrainian forces had carried out more than 1,300 strikes, including artillery shelling, suicide UAVs and infantry raids.
On Kiev's side, President Volodymyr Zelensky initially criticized the ceasefire decision as a "political game to human life", but later said Ukraine was "ready to respond to silence with silence, and counterattack if attacked".
However, this statement was quickly overshadowed by a series of accusations from both sides about breaking commitments. The Russian Defense Ministry reported: 444 shelling attacks, 900 mini UAV attacks, and 46 armed attacks were deployed by Ukraine in just one day and night.
The Russian diplomatic agency even accused Ukraine of attacking residential areas in Donetsk, Lugansk and Kherson with artillery and UAVs, causing casualties to civilians and damage to infrastructure.
The borders of Russia's Bryansk, Kursk and Belgorod regions were also attacked by UAVs and artillery shells.
Meanwhile, Kiev has also accused the Russian military of violating the ceasefire hundreds of times.
Mr. Rodion Miroshnik - special missionary of the Russian Foreign Ministry in charge of investigating war crimes - said frankly: "I have never seen a truly effective and long-lasting ceasefire. I have no reason to believe Ukraine is capable of complying with that.
This is not the first time that efforts to reconcile have fallen into a deadlock. Previously, the order to stop the attack on the energy facility was also quickly neutralized by retaliatory blows.
