Christians across Ukraine have marked religious festivities across the war-torn nation despite the Russian invasion’s threats continuing to tear apart communities as the president’s office reported missile strikes and shelling in eight regions across the country between Friday and Saturday.
Today marks Palm Sunday – the Sunday before Easter – for Orthodox Christians, a religion largely practiced by many Ukrainians, with services for the holy day held in the devastated cities of Bucha and Lviv.
People in Ivano-Frankvisk, western Ukraine, were also pictured holding willow branches – the flower thought be symbolic of new life – to honour the day.
It comes as religious leaders of those celebrating Easter today have urged for peace and called on world leaders to put an end to the ‘cruel and senseless’ violence in Ukraine.
Worshippers in the country gathered in churches to attend mass and light a candle with some becoming visibly emotional.
In Bucha, where Russian forces have been accused of atrocities including the rape and killing of civilians, believers gathered in a church yard for a mass and were sprayed with holy water.
Some 50 people attended a service at the town’s church, carrying willow and praying for the dead.
LVIV: Christians across Ukraine have marked religious festivities across the war-torn nation despite the Russian invasion’s threats continuing to tear apart communities
BUCHA: Today marks Palm Sunday – the Sunday before Easter – for Orthodox Christians, a religion largely practiced by many Ukrainians, with services for the holy day held across the country
BUCHA: Worshippers across the country gathered in churches to attend mass and light a candle with some becoming visibly emotional
Russia denies targeting civilians and has called pictures of those killed in Bucha fake.
Resident Evgeniya Lebedko said she ‘just prayed today to stop crying’ outside the church after the service.
She added: ‘We have survived these horrors and we are constantly crying. And I don’t want those tears to fall but I go out every day and I smell it and I cry all the time.’
In Lviv soldiers and civilians were pictured gathering at a church for a service, with many appearing sombre at a time of brutal conflict in their country.
Meanwhile Pope Francis has urged for peace around the world, with a spotlight on the violence in ‘war-torn’ Ukraine, for Easter today.
The pontiff led the Catholic Easter Sunday mass at St Peter’s Square at the Vatican before his solemn plea against violence.
IVANO-FRANKVISK: People in Ivano-Frankvisk, western Ukraine, were also pictured holding willow branches – the flower thought be symbolic of new life – to honour the day.
He spoke to crowds of some 50,000 for his twice yearly ‘Urbi et Orbi’ address, saying ‘we have seen all too much blood, all too much violence’.
Marking an ‘Easter of war’, he urged leaders to hear the people’s plea for peace in Ukraine and implicitly criticised Russia for dragging the country into a ‘cruel and senseless’ conflict.
Francis said: ‘In this terrible night of suffering and death, may a new dawn of hope soon appear! Let there be a decision for peace.
‘May there be an end to the flexing of muscles while people are suffering. Please, please, let us not get used to war!
‘Let us all commit ourselves to imploring peace, from our balconies and in our streets! Peace! May the leaders of nations hear people’s plea for peace.’
BUCHA: Andriy Halavin, an Orthodox priest, sprays holy water on believers after a service marking the Orthodox feast of Palm Sunday, in the yard of the Church of St Andrew and Pyervozvannoho All Saints
BUCHA: The Orthodox priest sprays holy water onto believers holding onto willow branches to mark Palm Sunday in the yard of the Church of St Andrew and Pyervozvannoho All Saints
BUCHA: Galina Bondar, 63, who said her son, Olexander Bondar, 32, a territorial defence member, was killed by Russian troops, reacts as she attends the Palm Sunday mass at the Church of St Andrew and Pyervozvannoho All Saints
Elsewhere in Ukraine, the country’s soldiers have vowed to ‘fight until the end’ after Russia issued a chilling warning to the final troops defending the besieged city of Mariupol, with Volodymyr Zelensky warned the Kremlin is trying to ‘destroy everyone there’.
Russia gave Ukrainian soldiers an ultimatum to ‘surrender or die’, urging them to lay down their arms by 6.00am Moscow time (3am GMT) and to evacuate before 13.00pm today after the Russian Defence Ministry claimed their troops had cleared the urban area of the city – with only a small unit of Ukrainian fighters remaining in the giant Azovstal steelworks in the south-eastern port.
In a statement, the defence ministry said: ‘The Russian Armed Forces offer the militants of nationalist battalions and foreign mercenaries from 6am (Moscow time) on April 17, 2022, to stop any hostilities and lay down their arms. All who lay down their arms are guaranteed that their lives will be spared.’
But with the last Ukrainian fighters in Mariupol refusing to surrender and accept Russia’s now-expired ultimatum, the Ukrainian MP for Odesa, Oleksiy Goncharenko, told BBC News the last defenders will ‘fight until the end’.
He said: ‘I spoke with them yesterday, and I know that they’re going to fight until the end.’
Goncharenko referred to the continuing siege of Mariupol as ‘a real genocide’ and said it was considered that ‘more than 20,000 people’ have been killed in the port city.
There have also been more reports today of Russian strikes around major popular centres.
Local media reported an explosion in the capital Kyiv, though deputy mayor Mykola Povoroznyk said air defence systems had thwarted Russian attacks. The mayor of Brovary city, close to Kyiv, said a missile attack had damaged infrastructure.
Russia said it had destroyed an ammunition factory near the capital, according to the RIA news agency.
LVIV: Ukrainian worshippers gather to attend a mass at Church of the Most Holy Apostles Peter and Paul to mark Palm Sunday today
LVIV: In Lviv soldiers and civilians were pictured gathering at a church for a service, with many appearing sombre at a time of brutal conflict in their country
LVIV: Worshippers light candles as they gather to attend a mass at Church of the Most Holy Apostles Peter and Paul in Lviv today
As clean-up operations continued in areas where the Russians retreated, Ukraine’s human rights ombudswoman said almost all high-rise buildings in the town of Okhtyrka were unfit for occupation, while the State Emergencies Service said 41 bodies had been recovered in the town of Borodyanka.
Despite the desperate situation in Mariupol, Ukraine said it was holding off Russian forces in other parts of the Donbas regions of Donetsk and Luhansk.
Today Donetsk region police said that over the past 24 hours, Russian forces opened fire from tanks, multiple rocket launchers and heavy artillery on 13 settlements under Ukrainian control, killing two civilians.
Luhansk governor Sehriy Gaidai said that since the start of the war, all but 20,000 of acting capital Sievierodonetsk’s 130,000 residents had left the city.
Meanwhile, in London, Archbishop of Canterbury Justin Welby called for Russia to declare a cease-fire and withdraw from Ukraine. The leader of the Anglican church said Easter is a time for peace and not ‘blood and iron.’
Noting that in the Eastern Orthodox church followed by many in Russia and Ukraine Sunday marks the start of Holy Week – with Easter coming on April 24 – Welby exhorted Russia to withdraw from Ukraine and commit to talks.
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