Airstrikes and Easter baskets

Snapshots from Ukraine’s third Orthodox Easter against the backdrop of all-out war

On Sunday, Ukraine marked its third Easter since the start of Russia’s full-scale invasion. As Ukrainians celebrated the holiday, Russian forces bombed Kharkiv, wounding more than a dozen people. The Russian Defense Ministry, meanwhile, announced that its forces in the Donetsk region had captured the village of Ocheretyne (or rather, what’s left of it). Meduza shares snapshots taken across Ukraine on Orthodox Easter.

Kharkiv under fire

Russian forces have carried out strikes on Ukraine’s second-largest city, Kharkiv, nearly every day in recent weeks. Aerial bombs hit a residential neighborhood in the city center on Sunday, as Ukrainians marked Orthodox Easter. At least 16 people were injured, according to Kharkiv Regional Governor Oleh Syniehubov.

Some Western military analysts believe that Russia is intensifying strikes on Kharkiv in preparation for a possible offensive aimed at capturing the city. However, a number of experts have argued that Russia currently lacks the manpower for such an operation.

Russia takes Ocheretyne

Also on Sunday, Russia’s Defense Ministry announced that its forces had captured Ocheretyne, a village in Ukraine’s eastern Donetsk region. Reports that Russian troops had seized the village with little resistance began circulating at the end of April. According to one explanation that appeared in the Ukrainian press, Russian forces managed to capitalize on a mistake made during the rotation of the Ukrainian units defending Ocheretyne. As Meduza reported previously, the fall of Ocheretyne could jeopardize Ukraine’s defense of the entire Donetsk region.

Drone footage published by the Associated Press over the weekend shows Ocheretyne, which had a pre-war population of 3,000, lying in ruins without a single person in sight.

Another wartime Easter

Orthodox Christians and Greek Catholics in Ukraine celebrated Easter on Sunday.

“Easter symbolizes the liberation of the human soul from the slavery of evil and darkness. It symbolizes the victory of goodness and justice, the victory of life over death,” President Volodymyr Zelensky said in a video greeting marking the holiday. “And we believe that there is a chevron with the Ukrainian flag on God’s shoulder,” he added. “Therefore, with such an ally, life will definitely prevail over death.”