MOSCOW, April 21. /TASS/. Russian troops strictly complied with the ceasefire during the Easter truce and stayed at their lines and positions, Russia’s Defense Ministry reported on Monday.
"In compliance with the order by the supreme commander-in-chief of the Russian Armed Forces, all the battlegroups strictly observed the ceasefire and stayed at their lines and positions in the special military operation area from 6:00 p.m. Moscow time on April 19 to 12:00 a.m. Moscow time on April 21," the ministry said in a statement.
Despite the declared Easter truce, Ukrainian armed formations kept delivering artillery fire and strikes by unmanned aerial vehicles on the positions of Russian troops and civilian facilities in the border areas of the Belgorod, Bryansk and Kursk Regions and the Republic of Crimea, the ministry said.
A total of 4,900 ceasefire breaches by the Ukrainian army were registered during the truce, it said.
During the truce, the Ukrainian military attempted six attacks, in particular, in areas near the settlements of Sukhaya Balka, Bogatyr, Pershe-Travnya, Belogorovka and Tarasovka in the Donetsk People’s Republic and in the area of the settlement of Oleshnya in the Kursk Region, which were repelled, the ministry reported.
During the ceasefire, the Kiev regime carried out attacks by 90 fixed-wing unmanned aerial vehicles, including eight outside the area of the special military operation. All the unmanned aerial vehicles were destroyed, it said.
The Kiev regime shelled 51 populated areas of Russia’s borderline Bryansk, Kursk and Belgorod Regions 19 times during the Easter truce, the ministry reported.
"A total of 1,404 bombardments from artillery guns, multiple launch rocket systems and mortars were conducted and 3,316 strikes by quadcopter drones on the positions of our troops were carried out. In the period from 6:00 p.m. Moscow time on April 19 to 12:00 a.m. Moscow time on April 21, 19 shelling attacks and 49 strikes by FPV drones were carried out and 16 munitions were dropped from copter-type UAVs (on 25 strongholds of Russian troops and 51 settlements) in the borderline areas of the Bryansk, Kursk and Belgorod Regions," the ministry said.
In general, the Ukrainian army significantly reduced the intensity of fire and combat operations along the entire frontline in the daytime during the truce, it said.