:format(jpeg)/cloudfront-us-east-1.images.arcpublishing.com/tgam/AUAH27NICBDYFBZRB64D3PLB6U.JPG)
Millions of Ukrainians celebrated Orthodox Easter on Sunday with prayers, hymns and hope for an end to the war in their homeland.
Despite curfews, security concerns and intense fighting around Bakhmut, Ukrainians made their way to churches across the country to mark Christianity’s holiest day for the second time since Russia’s invasion.
Thousands of worshippers gathered at Kyiv’s Holy Dormition Cathedral and in the courtyard of St. Michael’s Golden-Domed Monastery for Easter services and to have their baskets of food blessed by priests.
In a message recorded next to the cathedral, President Volodymyr Zelensky said Easter symbolized victory – “the victory of good, the victory of truth, the victory of life.”
“We welcome Easter with unshakable faith in the irreversibility of these victories,” he added. “On this day a year ago, we all prayed that Ukraine would endure, today – that Ukraine will win.”
The Orthodox Church has roughly 300 million adherents across Eastern Europe, and it sets Easter according to the Julian calendar. That means the day typically comes a week after the Roman Catholic celebration, which follows the Gregorian calendar.
Myrosia Keryk (left), director of the Ukrainian House, and Rev. David Brown, chaplain of the Anglican Church in Warsaw, greet the attendees who came for the Easter celebration.Anna Liminowicz/The Globe and Mail
Easter breakfast is served at the New Theatre. Among other things, 200 litres of soup, called 'zurek,' and 70 kilograms of white sausage were prepared.Anna Liminowicz/The Globe and Mail
For the more than eight million Ukrainians who fled the country because of the fighting, Easter Sunday was a bittersweet occasion and a time to reflect on the family and friends they have left behind.
In Poland, where around 1.4 million Ukrainians have settled since the war started, Christians from all traditions came together at one venue to bring some joy to those who have escaped the conflict.
“Spending Easter alone is not pleasant,” said Myrosia Keryk, who is originally from Ukraine and manages Ukrainian House in Warsaw. “When our refugees came to Poland, I knew that it would be very difficult for them, away from home, because our Ukrainian Easter holidays are very social, we don’t spend them only with family, but with friends, we go out into the city, on the street.”
Ukrainian House joined with the Anglican Church in Poland, the United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees and the EWL Foundation, which works with migrants, to organize an Easter breakfast for 700 Ukrainians at a theatre in Warsaw.
:format(jpeg)/cloudfront-us-east-1.images.arcpublishing.com/tgam/RPPQGTPM5VCCBJIH2CODB3K6OA.JPG)
:format(jpeg)/cloudfront-us-east-1.images.arcpublishing.com/tgam/HE2WSH4PWJEX7EDEHOL4C2TEKM.JPG)
:format(jpeg)/cloudfront-us-east-1.images.arcpublishing.com/tgam/QIANFZWCZZDKRKIGP6OKOCFN5E.JPG)
The meal included seven varieties of cake, including pashka, 70 kilograms of white sausages, and 200 litres of a sour rye soup called zurek.
“Easter is a time of hope. We remember that life is more than death, that love overcomes hatred,” Rev. David Brown, an Anglican chaplain, told the crowd. “And every day we pray for you, we pray for peace, for victory, for justice.”
Liliia Shulzhenko and her husband, Andrii, came to the breakfast with their two-year old grandson Maks Yatzenkom.
Liliia Shulzenko, 51, and her grandson came to New Theatre for what she says is a rare opportunity for the family to connect with their Ukrainian heritage after fleeing the country in February 2022.Anna Liminowicz/The Globe and Mail
Ms. Shulzhenko left the family’s home in Starokostyantyniv in western Ukraine on Feb. 24, 2022, the second day of the war, after Russian bombs struck the city. She headed to Warsaw with her daughter and grandson.
Mr. Shulzhenko arrived last month after he turned 60, making him eligible to leave the country under a law that bans men from the ages of 18 to 60 from going abroad.
They’ve found a place to live in Warsaw but adapting to a new country hasn’t been easy. Mr. Shulzhenko, an engineer, ran his own business in Ukraine and he now works as a carpenter. Ms. Shulzhenko, who trained as a mathematics teacher and worked in an employment office, cares for her grandson.
The event included a performance by Ukrainian band Monysto.Anna Liminowicz/The Globe and Mail
Ms. Shulzhenko said the Easter event was a rare opportunity for the family to connect with their Ukrainian heritage. “It’s important to be among Ukrainians, to feel the atmosphere,” she said.
There was one glimmer of good news from the battlefield on Sunday. The head of Russia’s mercenary Wagner Group released 130 Ukrainian prisoners of war in what was called “a big Easter prisoner exchange.”
“The lives of our people are the highest value for us,” said Ukrainian presidential adviser Andrii Yermak. It wasn’t clear how many Russian POWs had been released.
Back in Warsaw, as Ms. Keryk prepared the breakfast she thought about the words of Ukrainian poet Taras Shevchenko who famously wrote: “And on a renewed Earth there will be no enemy, and there will be a son and there will be a mother and there will be people on Earth.”
“I want to hope,” she said. “I want to believe.”