Zelenskyy Proposes Easter Truce, Russia Unlikely to Agree

0:00It's April 7th. I'm Corey with the story, and this is US News Today, your AI-powered National Briefing. Ukraine's President Bolotomir Zelensky just floated a proposal to Russia for a short break in hitting each other's energy systems over Orthodox, Easter, this coming weekend. He passed it through the United States, who's been trying to mediate between Kiev and Moscow as this war drags into its fifth year. Zelensky says, if Russia stops striking Ukraine's power grid, Ukraine will hold fire, too. Russia shot down a bigger 30-day truce idea from the US and Ukraine last year, pushing for a full deal instead. They've done some one-sided pauses before, but Zelensky doubts, though, by now. He figures Moscow's raking and cash from sky-high oil prices boosted by the Iran conflict, so why stop? Civilians are paying the price in these attacks. Tuesday morning, a Russian drone slammed a bus in Nikopol during rush hour, killing four people and wounding 15. Three more died in a strike on a person apartment, and an 11-year-old boy lost his life near

1:03Sinonikov. That pushed the daily civilian toll to aid, with power outages hitting eastern and southern spots. Meanwhile, Ukraine's homegrown, long-range drones are landing blows on Russian oil sites, stretching their defenses thin across that massive country. A Washington think tank says these strikes are seriously hurting Russia's oil exports, their top moneymaker. Russia keeps pounding Ukraine's rails and buses to break spirits. Talks through the US art moving on big issues, with eyes glued to the Middle East mess and fighting raging along that 800-mile front. This Easter pause could be a small test, but both sides keep trading hits on key targets.