Hello and welcome to NewsHour from the BBC World Service. I'm Celia Hatton, and I'm coming to you live from our studio in central London.

And we begin this edition of News Hour on what's meant to be a hopeful day for Christians, Easter Sunday, a day of rebirth.

But for those on either side of the Ukrainian

conflict, the possibility of hope that a brief ceasefire might last appears to be dimming by the

hour. On Saturday, Russia's leader of Vladimir Putin made a surprise announcement. His troops,

he said, would lay down their weapons for 30 hours in an apparent

Easter truce. Kiv agreed, though Ukraine's leader pushed for a 30-day ceasefire. That certainly

seems like wishful thinking at this point. We can now see that even a brief truce hasn't held.

Volodymyr Zelensky says Russian shelling

and assaults have continued in several places on the front line in Ukraine. He said Moscow was

trying to create the impression of a ceasefire, but was still trying to advance in some places.

People who gathered outside a cathedral in Kiev for the Easter prayer said they didn't believe anything Mr. Putin said.

Yesterday, after Putin said about the Easter ceasefire, there was explosions caused by ballistic missiles.

It was right after the ceasefire was announced. What kind of ceasefire is that? He lied as he always did.

No one believes that the ceasefire is happening. We all saw and heard it. The air raid sirens,

the reconnaissance groans. Putin probably just wants to rearm the troops. No one believes him anymore.

I really hope for a ceasefire, but I do not believe it will happen.

The Russians say one thing, but do the opposite.

Russia has accused Ukraine of carrying on with the war.

Its Ministry of Defense accused Kiev of drone attacks overnight and of Ukrainian troops

of firing guns and mortars. Well, joining me live from Keeve is Luke Harding, who is the Ukraine

correspondent for the British newspaper, The Guardian. He's also the author of a book called

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