Ukraine marks its third Easter at war, under fire from Russian drones and troops

A Ukrainian serviceman of the 72nd Separate Mechanised Brigade, lights candles during a Christian Orthodox Easter religious service, in the Donetsk region of Ukraine. Photo / AP

As Ukraine marked its third Orthodox Easter at war, Russia today launched a barrage of drones concentrated in Ukraine’s east, wounding more than a dozen people, and claimed its troops had taken control of a village.

Ukraine’s Air Force said that Russia had launched 24 Shahed drones, of which 23 were shot down.

Six people, including a child, were wounded in a drone strike in the eastern Kharkiv region, regional Governor Oleh Syniehubov said. Fourteen more were wounded in an airstrike on the regional capital, Kharkiv, the prosecutor’s office said. Syniehubov said the city was attacked by an aerial bomb.

Fires broke out when debris from drones that were shot down fell on buildings in the neighbouring Dnipropetrovsk region. No casualties were reported.

The Russian Ministry of Defence announced that its troops had taken control of the village of Ocheretyne, which has been in the crosshairs of Russian forces in the Donetsk region of eastern Ukraine. Drone footage obtained by AP showed the village battered by fighting. Not a single person is seen in the footage obtained on Saturday, and no building in Ocheretyne appears to have been left untouched by the fighting.

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

In his Easter address, President Volodymyr Zelenskyy called on Ukrainians to be “united in one common prayer”.

In a video filmed in front of Kyiv’s Saint Sophia Cathedral, wearing a traditional vyshyvanka embroidered shirt, Zelenskyy said that God “has a chevron with the Ukrainian flag on his shoulder”. With “such an ally”, Zelenskyy said, “life will definitely win over death”.

A majority of Ukrainians identify as Orthodox Christians, although the church is divided. Many belong to the independent Orthodox Church of Ukraine. The rival Ukrainian Orthodox Church was loyal to the patriarch in Moscow until splitting from Russia after the 2022 invasion and is viewed with suspicion by many Ukrainians.

In Moscow, worshippers including President Vladimir Putin packed Moscow’s landmark Christ the Saviour Cathedral on Sunday NZT for an Easter service led by Patriarch Kirill, head of the Russian Orthodox Church and an outspoken supporter of the Kremlin.

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