Putin Ends Ceasefire, Open to Peace Proposals
MOSCOW (Reuters) - Fighting in Ukraine has resumed after the Easter ceasefire, Russia's President Vladimir Putin said on Monday, adding that Moscow was open to any peace initiatives and expected similar attitude from Kyiv.
Both Ukraine and Russia accused each other of thousands of strikes and violating the Kremlin's unilateral ceasefire during the Easter celebrations.
"We always have a positive attitude towards a truce, which is why we came up with such an initiative, especially since we are talking about the bright Easter days," Putin told a state TV reporter, Pavel Zarubin.
"We have always talked about this, that we have a positive attitude towards any peace initiatives. We hope that representatives of the Kyiv regime will feel the same way," he added.
Washington had said it would welcome an extension of the truce, and Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskiy reiterated several times Ukraine's willingness to agree a pause strikes on civilian infrastructure for 30 days in the war.
Putin said Russia has to carefully study this and other proposals.
(Reporting by Reuters; Writing by Gleb Stolyarov; Editing by Toby Chopra)
