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Russia launches missiles, drones as Putin’s Easter ceasefire ends, Ukraine says

Russia launches missiles, drones as Putin’s Easter ceasefire ends, Ukraine says
People walk past residential buildings heavily damaged by air attacks in Kostyantynivka, in the eastern Donetsk region, on April 20, 2025. (AFP)
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Updated 21 April 2025

Russia launches missiles, drones as Putin’s Easter ceasefire ends, Ukraine says

Russia launches missiles, drones as Putin’s Easter ceasefire ends, Ukraine says
  • Both Kyiv and Moscow had accused each other of thousands of attacks that violated the Easter truce

Russia launched missiles and drones targeting Ukraine early on Monday, waking up Kyiv and the eastern half of the country, hours after the one-day Easter ceasefire declared by Russian President Vladimir Putin came to an end.
There were no immediate reports of injuries or major damages from the attacks, regional Ukrainian officials said on social media. The scale of the attack was not immediately clear.
Both Kyiv and Moscow had accused each other of thousands of attacks that violated the truce that the Kremlin indicated on Sunday would not be extended.
Washington said it would welcome an extension of the truce, and President Volodymyr Zelensky reiterated several times Ukraine’s willingness to pause strikes for 30 days in the war.
But Putin, who launched Russia’s invasion of Ukraine in February 2022 and who ordered on Saturday the halt in all military activity along the front line until midnight Moscow time (2100 GMT) on Sunday, did not give orders to extend it.
“There were no other commands,” Russia’s TASS state news agency cited Kremlin’s spokesman Dmitry Peskov as saying when asked whether the ceasefire could be prolonged.
While eastern Ukraine was placed under air raid alerts starting minutes after midnight on Monday that are yet to be called off, according to data from the Ukrainian air force, Kyiv and the central regions were placed on alert for about an hour, starting at 0140 GMT.
There were no reports of strikes on the Ukrainian capital, but officials in the port city of Mykolaiv said that it had been hit by Russian missiles. There were no immediate reports of damages.
Russia’s Voronezh region that borders Ukraine was also under air raid alerts for two hours overnight, and the borders regions of Kursk and parts of Belgorod were briefly under missile threat as well, regional officials said.
While there were no air raid alerts in Ukraine on Sunday, Ukrainian forces reported nearly 3,000 violations of Russia’s own ceasefire with the heaviest attacks and shelling seen along the Pokrovsk part of the frontline, Zelensky said earlier on Monday.
Russia’s defense ministry said on Sunday that Ukrainian forces had shot at Russian positions 444 times and said it had counted more than 900 Ukrainian drone attacks, saying also that there were deaths and injuries among the civilian population.
Reuters could not independently verify the battlefield reports.
US President Donald Trump, hoping to clinch a lasting peace deal, struck an optimistic note Sunday, saying that “hopefully” the two sides would make a deal “this week” to end the conflict.
On Friday, Trump and his Secretary of State, Marco Rubio, said the US would walk away from peace efforts unless there are clear signs of progress soon.


North Korea sends 5,000 construction troops to Russia: Seoul

North Korea sends 5,000 construction troops to Russia: Seoul
Updated 55 min 2 sec ago

North Korea sends 5,000 construction troops to Russia: Seoul

North Korea sends 5,000 construction troops to Russia: Seoul
  • North Korean leader Kim Jong Un has been emboldened by the war in Ukraine
  • South Korean lawmaker Lee Seong-kweun told reporters that “around 5,000 North Korean construction troops have been moving to Russia in phases since September

SEOUL: North Korea has sent about 5,000 construction troops to Russia since September to help with “infrastructure reconstruction,” a South Korean lawmaker said Tuesday after a briefing by Seoul’s spy agency.
North Korean leader Kim Jong Un has been emboldened by the war in Ukraine, securing critical support from Moscow after sending thousands of troops to fight alongside Russian forces.
South Korean lawmaker Lee Seong-kweun told reporters that “around 5,000 North Korean construction troops have been moving to Russia in phases since September and are expected to be mobilized for infrastructure reconstruction.”
He added that “continued signs of training and personnel selection in preparation for additional troop deployments have been detected.”
The spy agency told lawmakers that about 10,000 North Korean troops were estimated to be currently deployed near the Russia-Ukraine border, according to Lee.
At least 600 North Korean soldiers have died in the Ukraine war and thousands more sustained injuries, according to South Korean estimates.
Analysts say North Korea is receiving financial aid, military technology, and food and energy supplies from Russia in return for sending troops.
That has allowed it to sidestep tough international sanctions imposed over its nuclear and missile programs that were once a crucial bargaining chip for the United States.

- US talks -

Since Kim’s 2019 summit with US President Donald Trump collapsed over the scope of denuclearization and sanctions relief, Pyongyang has repeatedly declared itself an “irreversible” nuclear state.
Pyongyang did not respond to Trump’s offer to meet with Kim last week, and instead its Foreign Minister Choe Son Hui headed to Moscow, where she and Russian President Vladimir Putin agreed to strengthen bilateral ties.
Lee said Seoul’s spy agency believes Kim was open to talks with Washington “and will seek contact when the conditions are in place.”
Although the proposed meeting with Trump did not materialize, “multiple signs suggest” that Pyongyang “had been preparing behind the scenes for possible talks with the US,” said the lawmaker.
In September, Kim appeared alongside Xi Jinping and Russia’s Vladimir Putin at an elaborate military parade in Beijing — a striking display of his new, elevated status in global politics.
An international sanctions monitoring group, the Multilateral Sanctions Monitoring Team, said in a report last month that North Korea was planning to send “40,000 laborers to Russia, including several delegations of IT workers.”
Under UN sanctions, North Korean workers are prohibited from earning money abroad.