Zelensky praises Ukraine’s victories in Orthodox Easter address

Mercenary fighters of Russia’s Wagner group captured two more areas of the eastern Ukrainian city of Bakhmut, Russia’s Ministry of Defense said on Saturday. 

“Wagner assault units have successfully advanced, capturing two districts on the northern and southern outskirts of Bakhmut,” the ministry claimed. 

Ukraine is yet to comment. 

The Institute for the Study of War (ISW) in Washington DC on Saturday appeared to back up the Russian claims.  

“Geolocated footage showed that Wagner Group forces made marginal gains in northwestern Bakhmut and advanced in southwestern Bakhmut,” ISW said. 

The battle for the besieged city of Bakhmut has seen some of the fiercest fighting and the longest engagement since the start of the Russian invasion. 

CNN cannot independently verify battlefield claims in Ukraine. 

A group of 130 Ukrainians prisoners have been returned from Russian captivity in a “big Easter prisoner exchange” over the last few days, said Andrii Yermak, the head of Ukraine’s Presidential Office.

“Military, border guards, national guards, sailors, employees of the State Special Transport Service. Privates and sergeants who were captured in the Bakhmut, Soledar, Zaporizhzhia, and Kherson areas. Our people are going back home,” Yermak said.

“Easter. The essence of this holiday is hope. This is exactly what the families of the prisoners felt, they had been waiting for them for so long,” Yermak added.

Some context: Several prisoner swaps have taken place during Russia’s war in Ukraine, involving Russians, Ukrainians and foreign nationals.

The most high-profile was in December 2022, when basketball star Brittney Griner was released from Russian detention in a prisoner swap with Russian arms dealer Viktor Bout.

In September 2022, two American veterans and five British citizens who had been held by Russian-backed forces for months were released as part of a prisoner swap between Russia and Ukraine brokered by Saudi Arabia.

Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky on Sunday welcomed Orthodox Easter by commemorating the fallen “defenders of Ukraine” and urged his compatriots to keep fighting, as Russian strikes continued overnight, destroying a church in the southeastern city of Zaporizhzhia. 

“Today, we celebrate the holiday of the Resurrection of the Lord. Its main symbol is victory: the victory of good, victory of truth, victory of life. We celebrate Easter with unshakable faith in the irreversibility of these victories,” Zelensky said.

The Ukrainian leader acknowledged that “perhaps the most difficult of the peaks is ahead of us” but exhorted Ukrainians to keep fighting until their flag is raised in “all our God-given land,” including Russian-annexed Crimea.

“We are one big family. Ukrainians. We have one big home. Ukraine. We have one big goal. Victory. For all,” Zelensky said. 

His comments come as Russian forces launched an overnight missile attack, destroying a church in a village on the outskirts of the city of Zaporizhzhia, according to Ukraine’s State Emergency Service.

“There is nothing sacred, even on the Easter night,” Yurii Malashko, head of Zaporizhzhia region military administration, posted on his Telegram account on Sunday.

At least one person was killed in Ukrainian shelling early Sunday on the city of Donetsk, according to Russian state news agency TASS.

Denis Pushilin, head of the self-proclaimed Donetsk People’s Republic, said a church in central Donetsk had been struck while parishioners were attending Orthodox Easter mass on Sunday.

The shelling also damaged a kindergarten, a market, and a pharmacy, among other stores, he said. 

Alexei Kulemzin, head of the city administration, said the city was shelled at least 16 times on Saturday by Ukraine’s armed forces, causing damage to residential buildings. 

Tatiana’s eyes were fixed on rescue workers digging through the jumble of rubble on what was once the top floor of an apartment building in the eastern Ukrainian city of Sloviansk.

Friday afternoon, several Russian S-300 missiles slammed into her community, with an eighth hitting the nearby town of Kramatorsk. Eleven people were killed, including a toddler, and more than 20 people were wounded, local authorities said. 

The father and son were part of a family that had fled Sloviansk early in the war. Like many others, they recently returned after Russian forces were driven back in last autumn’s Ukrainian counteroffensive.

The missile made a direct hit on the building, throwing debris all over the surrounding area. 

Sloviansk mayor Vadym Liakh announced Saturday that a free train service would begin Tuesday, offering citizens the chance to move to safer areas in the Donetsk region, as well as accommodation, meals and social benefits. In a statement posted on his Facebook page, the mayor noted the town’s current population is 50,000 — up from 20,000 last summer.

Elsewhere, in another part of Sloviansk, a deep crater marked a missile impact point in the middle of a children’s playground. The hit had thrown dark, rich soil into the seats of a swing.

Friday had been rainy and cold, and the playground was empty when the missile struck.

At least 11 people have died and 22 more are wounded after Friday’s strikes on residential buildings in the eastern city of Sloviansk, according to an update from the State Emergency Services.

The Ukrainian agency said four more people may still be trapped under the rubble Saturday.

“A total of 75 tonnes of rubble have been dismantled at the site,” the service’s report said.

At least eight explosions rocked the city Friday afternoon local time, as Russian forces targeted it with S-300 rockets, according to Sloviansk Mayor Vadym Liakh. The strikes hit apartment buildings, houses, administrative buildings and a schoolyard.

A 2-year-old boy was among those killed in the assault.