KYIV, Ukraine — Ukraine marked its third Easter during a war with Russia on Sunday. Russia launched a series of drones in eastern Ukraine, causing injuries to over a dozen people. Russian troops also asserted that they gained control of a targeted village.
Ukraine’s air force reported that Russia launched 24 Shahed drones overnight, and 23 of them were shot down.
Six people, including a child, were injured in a drone strike in the eastern Kharkiv region, as stated by regional Gov. Oleh Syniehubov. Additionally, fourteen more people were wounded in an airstrike on the Kharkiv regional capital. Syniehubov mentioned that the city was attacked with an aerial bomb.
Fires started when debris from the downed drones fell on buildings in the nearby Dnipropetrovsk region, but no casualties were reported.
The Russian Ministry of Defense declared on Sunday that its troops had seized control of the village of Ocheretyne in the Donetsk region of eastern Ukraine. Drone footage obtained by The Associated Press depicted the village extensively damaged by the conflict. The footage, acquired on Friday, showed no individuals and revealed that every building in Ocheretyne had been affected by the fighting.
Authorities in Kyiv recommended that residents attend Orthodox Easter services online due to safety concerns. Serhiy Popko, head of the Kyiv city administration, cautioned that “even on such bright days of celebration, we can expect evil deeds from the aggressor.”
In his Easter message, President Volodymyr Zelenskyy urged Ukrainians to be “united in one common prayer.”
In a video recorded in front of Kyiv’s Saint Sophia Cathedral, wearing a traditional Vyshyvanka embroidered shirt, Zelenskyy mentioned that God “has a chevron with the Ukrainian flag on his shoulder.” Zelenskyy expressed that with “such an ally,” life will certainly triumph over death.
The majority of Ukrainians identify as Orthodox Christians, although the church is divided. Many are part of the independent Orthodox Church of Ukraine. The rival Ukrainian Orthodox Church was loyal to the patriarch in Moscow until it separated from Russia after the 2022 invasion and is viewed with suspicion by many Ukrainians.
In Moscow, worshippers including President Vladimir Putin gathered at Moscow’s landmark Christ the Savior Cathedral on Saturday night for a nighttime Easter service led by Patriarch Kirill, the head of the Russian Orthodox Church and a staunch supporter of the Kremlin.
Eastern Orthodox Christians typically celebrate Easter later than Catholic and Protestant churches due to using a different method to calculate the date of the holy day that commemorates Christ’s resurrection.
