DISINFO: Russia has temporarily stopped airstrikes on Ukraine
SUMMARY
The temporary cessation of strikes by the Russian Armed Forces on Ukrainian infrastructure will be a test for Kyiv in the matter of fulfilling the agreements reached in the negotiations between Moscow and Washington. If the new agreements on a partial ceasefire are observed, the next stage could be its complete cessation on Easter or May 9. Of course, there is no confirmation of this, but such a development cannot be ruled out. Ukraine, of course, will be in shock, and Europe's reaction remains an open question. But serious agreements have been reached between Russia and the United States.
RESPONSE
This claim was made in the context of the proposal for a 30-day truce agreed by the US and Ukraine during their Jeddah talks and Putin's agreement in a call with US President Donald Trump to a 30-day ceasefire with Ukraine. Also, this is a brutal substitution of concepts accusing Ukraine of Russian shelling of the civilian population.
On the evening of March 18, 2025, Donald Trump and Putin had a telephone conversation. During the discussions, Putin told Trump about his "readiness to jointly work out ways to resolve the situation in Ukraine," and also "supported" the idea of a temporary renunciation of air attacks on Ukrainian infrastructure and "gave such a command to the military." At the same time as the Kremlin released this statement promising to "stop air attacks on Kyiv," the first attack drones were detected in Ukrainian airspace.
On the night of March 19, 2025 (from 19:00 on March 18, Kyiv time), Russia attacked Ukraine with two Iskander-M ballistic missiles, four S-300 long-range surface-to-air missiles, and 145 Shahed-type attack UAVs and drone imitators. One of the Russian drones attacked a regional hospital in the Sumy region. In the Kyiv region, as a result of the attack, 20 apartment buildings, 15 private houses, and 19 cars were damaged, and several entertainment venues were destroyed. As a result of the Russian attack on the night of March 19, six regions of Ukraine suffered - houses were destroyed, people were injured. This fact once again demonstrates the manipulative nature of Russian statements about the desire to end the aggression against Ukraine.
Denying war crimes and atrocities and trying to deflect any responsibility is a recurring pro-Kremlin disinformation technique. See other examples of similar disinformation messages in our database, such as claims that Russia wages war humanely and does not hit civilians, that Russia only attacks military facilities in Ukraine, that ICC falsely claims Russia strikes civilian targets in Ukraine, that Accusations about Russian military war crimes are unacceptable: a lot of fakes on this topic; The Russian military does not strike civilian infrastructure; or that Accusations of Russia "shelling the civilian infrastructure are hypocrisy.