kyiv, Ukraine (AP) — The sun rose as Ukrainians celebrated Orthodox Easter in the capital kyiv on Sunday with prayers for those fighting on the front lines and others trapped farther afield in places like Mariupol.
Saint Volodymyr’s Cathedral in kyiv was surrounded by hundreds of faithful with baskets to be blessed. Inside, a woman clutched a soldier’s arm and turned briefly to kiss his elbow. Other soldiers prayed, holding a handful of candles, then crossed themselves. An older woman made her way slowly through the crowd and the stalls of flickering candles. A young woman was holding daffodils.
Outside the cathedral, a soldier who gave only his first name, Mykhailo, used his helmet as an Easter basket. He said that he had no other.
“I hope I just have to wear the helmet for this,” he said.
President Volodymyr Zelenskyy at a service elsewhere in kyiv urged Ukrainians not to let anger over the war overwhelm them.
“All of us believe that our dawn will come soon,” he said.
The spiritual leader of the world’s Orthodox Christians called for the opening of humanitarian corridors in Ukraine, saying a “human tragedy” was unfolding in the country.
Ecumenical Patriarch Bartholomew I spoke Saturday night in Istanbul during midnight mass. He is considered first among equals among Eastern Orthodox patriarchs, giving him prominence but not the power of a Catholic pope.
With the Orthodox church divided by tensions between Russia and Ukraine, some worshipers hoped the holy day might inspire gestures of peace. “The church can help,” said a man who gave only his first name, Serhii, when he arrived at a church in kyiv under the Moscow patriarchate.
He and others brought baskets to be blessed by priests for Easter, with brush strokes sprinkling holy water over offerings of home-dyed eggs, lighted candles and even bottles of Jack Daniels.
Residents of war-hit rural villages approached the holiday with a certain defiance.
“We will celebrate Easter no matter what, no matter the horror,” said Kateryna Lazarenko, 68, in the northern town of Ivanivka, outside Chernihiv, where dilapidated Russian tanks still littered the roads.
“How do I feel? Very nervous, everyone is nervous,” said another resident, Olena Koptyl, as she prepared her Easter bread. “Easter holidays don’t bring any joy. I’m crying a lot. We can’t forget how we used to live.” She and 12 others spent a month sheltering from Russian soldiers in the basement of her home before the soldiers withdrew.
Ukraine prepared on Sunday for the first high-level US trip to kyiv since before the war began on February 24, after Zelenskyy announced he would meet Secretary of State Antony Blinken and Secretary of Defense, Lloyd Austin.
Zelenskyy at a news conference on Saturday night gave few details, but said he expected results: “not just gifts or some kind of cakes, we are waiting for specific things and specific weapons.”
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Oleksandr Stashevsky contributed to this report from Ivanivka.
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Follow AP’s coverage of the war at https://apnews.com/hub/russia-ukraine
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