Ukraine marks third Easter at war | Religion News

Ukraine has been hit by yet another barrage as it marks its third Easter at war with invading Russian forces.

As Ukraine celebrated Orthodox Easter on Sunday, Russia launched a drone barrage concentrated in the east. The attack injured more than a dozen people, while Moscow said its troops had taken control of a strategic village on the front line.

Sunday marked the third Easter since Russia launched its invasion of Ukraine on February 24, 2022.

Ukraine’s Air Force said it shot down 23 of the 24 Shahed drones Russia launched overnight. However, six people, including a child, were injured in an attack in the Kharkiv region, said regional governor Oleh Syniehubov.

Fourteen more were injured in an airstrike on Sunday afternoon in Kharkiv, the regional prosecutor’s office said. Syniehubov said the city was attacked by an aerial bomb.

The fires broke out when debris from downed drones fell on buildings in the neighboring Dnipropetrovsk region. No casualties were reported.

The Russian Defense Ministry announced that its troops have taken control of the village of Ocheretyne, which has been targeted by Russian forces in the Donetsk region.

Authorities in Kiev have asked residents to follow Orthodox Easter services online due to security concerns. Serhiy Popko, head of Kiev city administration, warned that “even on such bright days of celebration, we can expect evil deeds from the aggressor.”

In his Easter speech, President Volodymyr Zelenskyy called on Ukrainians to “join together in common prayer”.

In a video filmed in front of Saint Sophia Cathedral in Kiev, Zelenskyy – wearing a traditional embroidered Vyshyvanka shirt – said that God “has a chevron with the Ukrainian flag on his shoulder”.

With “such an ally,” Zelenskyy said, “life will definitely conquer death.”

Most Ukrainians identify as Orthodox Christians, although the conflict has helped divide the Church.

Many belong to the independent Orthodox Church of Ukraine. The rival Ukrainian Orthodox Church was loyal to the patriarch in Moscow until it split from Russia after the 2022 invasion and is viewed with suspicion by many.

Eastern Orthodox Christians generally celebrate Easter later than Catholic and Protestant Christians because they use a different method of calculating the date of the holy day that marks Christ’s resurrection.