On Monday, a brief and unexpected Easter truce in the Ukraine war declared by Russian president Vladimir Putin came to an end. It lasted barely 30 hours.

During that time, both Ukraine and Russia repeatedly accused each other of violating the ceasefire and launching new attacks.

DW takes a closer look at the timing, the motives — and the fallout from this short-lived pause in fighting.

The ceasefire was initiated by Russia. President Putin announced it unilaterally just two hours before it began. He claimed the decision was made for "humanitarian reasons."

Following Putin's statement, Volodymyr Zelenskyy initially accused the Russian president of playing with people's lives but eventually agreed to the ceasefire.

Most Kyiv residents that DW spoke to said they were skeptical from the start about Putin's so-called "humanitarian" gesture. "I don't believe it for a second. Putin never keeps his word. It's all a farce," one woman from Kyiv told DW.

Volodymyr Fesenko, chairman of the Penta Center for Applied Political Studies in Kyiv, told DW that Russia deliberately provoked fighting during the ceasefire and used the pause as cover to launch assault operations in certain areas.

On Monday, Ukrainian president........

© Deutsche Welle