LUHANSK, April 14. /TASS/. During the Easter truce declared by Russian President Vladimir Putin, soldiers of the Ukrainian armed forces attacked settlements behind Ukrainian lines in the Sumy, Kharkov, and Zaporozhye regions so that they could then blame Russia and vilify it, military expert Andrey Marochko told TASS.

"According to reports from the field, shelling of Ukrainian armed forces in their rear areas has been recorded in the Sumy, Kharkov, and Zaporozhye regions. This practice is not new and occurs with almost every ceasefire. The main goal of such actions is to discredit the Russian Armed Forces and the country’s leadership as a whole, as well as to score political points for Ukraine’s criminal military-political leadership in the international arena," he said, citing his own sources.

Russian President Vladimir Putin declared an Easter truce from 4:00 p.m. Moscow time (1:00 p.m. GMT) on April 11 until late on April 12. During this time, the Russian Ministry of Defense recorded 6,558 ceasefire violations by Ukraine.