India, April 13 -- Moscow on Sunday accused Ukraine of violating the Kremlin-declared 32-hour Orthodox Easter truce by targeting positions of Russian troops. Russia recorded nearly two thousand ceasefire violations by Ukrainian forces during the initial 16 hours of the truce, the Russian Defence Ministry said on Sunday.

"Although the Easter ceasefire had been declared, the Ukrainian armed forces attacked the positions of Russian troops three times from the Pokrovskoye area last night," it said in a post on the social media platform Max. The settlements of Gai were targeted twice in the ceasefire violations on Saturday night, along with Otradnoye in the Dnepropetrovsk Region, it said. All the attacks were repelled, it added.

"A total of ...