WASHINGTON/MOSCOW: A US-mediated ceasefire between Russia and Ukraine appeared under serious strain on Sunday, with both sides trading blame for weekend attacks.

The three-day pause, announced on Friday by President Donald Trump, is part of a broader US-led push for peace that has so far failed to end the war despite months of shuttle diplomacy.

Three people were killed in Russian drone strikes on areas near the front line, and more than 200 battlefield clashes had taken place since early Saturday, Ukra­inian officials reported on Sunday.

They held off explicitly accusing Russia of violating the US-brokered deal, which also included a swap of 1,000 prisoners of war from each side. It was unclear when the exchange would take place.

US-led push for peace talks failed to end over four-year-old war

On Sunday, Russia’s Defence Ministry accused Ukraine of flouting the ceasefire, saying it had downed 57 Ukrainian drones over the past day and “responded in kind” on the battlefield.

Earlier this week, Russia and Ukraine announced separate ceasefires, starting Friday and Wednesday, respectively.

Dead and wounded in Ukraine

One person each in Ukraine’s Zaporizhzhia, Dnipropetrovsk and Kherson regions were killed in Russian drone attacks, regional governors and police said in separate reports on Sunday.

In the northeastern Kharkiv region, governor Oleh Syniehubov said eight people were wounded in drone strikes on the regional capital and nearby settlements.

Seven people, including a child, were also wounded in the Kherson region in drone or artillery attacks since early Saturday, regional governor Oleksandr Prokudin said on Sunday.

The State Emergencies Service said Russian forces attacked one of its rescue vehicles in the Dnipropetrovsk region with a drone, wounding a driver.

Kyiv’s air force said Russia had launched 27 long-range drones at Ukraine overnight — a lower number than usual — but that air defences had downed all of them.

Ukraine’s General Staff said on Sunday nearly 210 clashes had taken place along the 1,200-km front line since early Saturday.

Stalled diplomacy

Russian forces are pressing an offensive to capture the rest of Donetsk region, which Moscow has demanded Kyiv cede before it considers ending its war.

US-backed peace talks between Kyiv and Moscow have stalled over the matter, as well as over control of the Russian-occupied Zaporizhzhia nuclear power plant, Europe’s largest.

Russian officials had sent mixed signals on Saturday, with Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov saying peace in Ukraine was a “very long way” away but President Vladimir Putin suggesting the war was “coming to an end”.

US envoy Steve Witkoff and Jared Kushner will visit Moscow “soon enough” to continue talks with Russia, news agency Interfax reported Kremlin adviser Yuri Ushakov as saying on Sunday.

On Friday, Kyiv’s top negotiator, Rustem Umerov, said he had met Witkoff and Kushner in Miami for talks on humanitarian issues and to “coordinate further steps” toward peace.

Separately, Germany dismissed a suggestion by Putin that former Chancellor Gerhard Schroeder could coordinate talks with the European Union to secure a peace deal in Ukraine.

Published in Dawn, May 11th, 2026