Russian forces continued heavy shelling of Ukrainian cities on Sunday as people in both countries celebrated Orthodox Easter and US secretaries of state and defense prepared for their first visit to Kyiv since the invasion.
“The Russian army continues to actively shell peaceful cities in Ukraine and kill civilians,” said Liudmyla Denisova, the Ukrainian parliament’s human rights ombudsman. She said Russian attacks killed four civilians in the Donetsk region and eight in the Luhansk region. “Three people working in a garden in Zaporizhia were killed by Russian artillery on Saturday,” Denisova said.
The Russian military reported hitting 423 Ukrainian targets overnight, including fortified positions and troop concentrations, while its warplanes destroyed 26 Ukrainian military sites, including an explosives factory and several artillery depots.
Most of the Easter fighting has been concentrated in the eastern Donbass region, where Ukrainian forces are concentrated and where Moscow-backed separatists controlled some areas before the war.
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According to the National Police of Ukraine, two girls, aged five and 14, died in shelling in the town of Ocheretyne, which is part of the industrial zone.
Russian forces continued to attack the city of Kharkiv, injuring three police officers and a woman, while artillery killed two men in the village of Slatine, Kharkiv region.
Moscow forces launched airstrikes on a steel plant in Mariupol, where up to 1,000 civilians are holed up along with about 2,000 Ukrainian fighters.
Serhiy Volyna, commander of Ukraine’s 36th Naval Brigade in Mariupol, said in an interview with an opposition lawmaker shown on YouTube on Sunday that Russia was hitting the complex with air and artillery bombardments.
“We’re taking casualties, the situation is critical… we have a lot of wounded, (some) are dying, it’s a difficult (situation) with weapons, ammunition, food, medicine… the situation is rapidly deteriorating,” Volyna said, speaking of his location in the factory.
The UN Crisis Coordinator for Ukraine, Amin Awad, called for an “immediate end” to fighting in Mariupol to allow for the evacuation of trapped civilians from the stricken city. “The lives of tens of thousands, including women, children and the elderly, are at stake in Mariupol,” Awad said. “We need a lull in the fighting now to save lives.”
An aide to Ukraine’s president, Vladimir Zelenskyy, said Sunday that Ukraine had invited Russia to hold talks near the Mariupol Steel Plant. “We invited the Russians to a special on-site round of talks right next to the walls of Azovstal,” said Oleksiy Arestovych.
Earlier in the day, Kyiv called for a ceasefire in ailing Mariupol for the Orthodox Easter celebrated in both Russia and Ukraine.
Even as fighting raged across the country, a military position in the eastern frontline town of Lyman took time out to celebrate a celebratory Easter and give the customary patriotic salute, “Glory to Ukraine!” for the ritual “Christ is risen!”.
“Resurrected indeed!” came the reply.
At the town’s small Orthodox church, about 50 civilians braved possible mortar fire to gather for prayer from dawn.
Believers await sanctification during an Easter Orthodox service in Lyman, Ukraine. Photo: Yasuyoshi Chiba/AFP/Getty ImagesUkrainians, meanwhile, paid tribute to a journalist, Valeria Glodan, and her three-month-old daughter who were among eight people killed in rocket attacks on Odessa’s southern port on Saturday.
Glodan had posted on Instagram just before the break-in that she was delighted at the arrival of her little girl. “These were the best 40 weeks ever,” she wrote on Twitter 11 weeks ago. “Our girl is now one month old. Dad got her first flowers. It’s a whole new level of happiness.”
On Sunday, her husband, Yury Glodan, shared a heartbreaking tribute to his wife and daughter. “My dears, the kingdom of heaven! You are in our hearts,” he wrote on social media.
Zelenskyy spoke furiously about the baby’s death during a press conference at a Kyiv subway station on Saturday night.
“Try to understand it,” he said. “The war started when the child was one month old. These are pure bastards. They are monsters. It’s scary. They don’t care.” A future war crimes tribunal would bring justice to the Russian leadership, he added.
Volodymyr Zelenskyy arrives for a press conference at a Kyiv metro station. Photo: Gleb Garanich/ReutersZelenskyy announced that he would meet US Secretary of State Antony Blinken and Secretary of Defense Lloyd Austin in Kyiv on Sunday. The White House declined to comment.
It would be the first high-level US trip to Kyiv since the war began on February 24. Blinken and Austin’s visit will come at a symbolic moment as the war enters its third month and fierce fighting continues in the east of the country.
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Zelenskiy staffer Igor Zhovkva told NBC News on Sunday that Ukrainian officials intended to brief Blinken and Austin on the immediate need for more weapons, including anti-missile systems, anti-aircraft systems, armored vehicles and tanks.
United States and NATO allies have shown a growing willingness to supply heavier equipment and more advanced weapons systems. Britain has promised to send military vehicles and is considering supplying British tanks to Poland to free Warsaw’s Russian-designed T-72 for Ukraine.
Zelenskiy gave few details on logistics, but said he expects concrete results – “not just presents or any kind of cake, we expect certain things and certain weapons”.
On Sunday, Zelenskiy, who is Jewish, stressed the importance of Easter, the highest point in the Orthodox calendar, in a video message from Kiev’s old St. Sophia Cathedral.
“The great holiday today gives us great hope and unshakable faith that light will overcome darkness, good will overcome evil, life will overcome death and therefore Ukraine will surely win,” he said.