Weekend shelling by Russian forces has killed at least seven civilians, Ukrainian officials said Sunday as Pope Francis and Canterbury Archbishop Justin Welby used traditional Easter messages to highlight the war in Ukraine and other conflicts around the world.
While Russia continues to focus on capturing the entire eastern industrial zone of Ukraine, two other provinces – Kharkiv in the northeast and Zaporizhzhia in the southeast – have come under fire from rockets, rockets and artillery. , the Ukrainian military reported.
Kharkiv Governor Oleh Syniehubov said two men died Sunday in shelling in Kupiansk, a city that Russia seized before Ukrainian forces regained control of almost the entire province.
Syniehubov said the city remained under attack late Sunday as Russian forces targeted residential areas with multiple rocket launchers. Elsewhere in the province, a 30-year-old man was hospitalized in serious condition after Russia shelled the city of Chuhuiv, he said on Telegram.
According to City Council Secretary Anatoliy Kurtev, shelling also killed two people overnight, including a child born in 2012, in the city of Zaporizhzhia, the capital of that province.
The governor of the Zaporizhzhia region, Yurii Malashko, said all 18 communities had been shelled. Three people were killed and five injured on Saturday, Malashko said.
Zaporizhzhia is home to Europe’s largest nuclear power plant and is one of four Ukrainian provinces that Russian President Vladimir Putin illegally annexed in September. Since then, the Russian military has sought to oust it. Ukraine from those regions, especially the Luhansk and Donetsk regions, makes up the industrial region known as the Donbas.
Bakhmut, a city in Donestsk, saw the longest battle lasting 13 months. Western analysts say Russian forces have recently entered the city center. Capturing Bakhmut after more than eight months would give the Kremlin a desired victory and a path to the larger cities held by Ukraine.
The Russian military is moving elite units to Bakhmut, Colonel Serhiy Cherevaty, spokesman for the Eastern Ukraine Forces Group, said on Sunday.
Cherevaty said the Wagner Corporation, a private Russian military company whose fighters led the attack on Bakhmut, is suffering heavy losses, prompting the mobilization of regular units from the army. Regular squadrons, consisting of paratroopers and mechanized soldiers, are essential.
The vast majority of Ukrainians have an identifying religion as Orthodox Christianity, a faith that celebrates Easter on April 16 this year. Some Catholics celebrate Easter on Sunday, while Orthodox churches celebrate Palm Sunday this weekend.
While delivering his Easter address from the central balcony of St. Peter’s Basilica in the Vatican, Pope Francis asked the Lord to “help dear Ukrainians on their journey towards peace, and shine a light on them.” shine the light of Easter on the Russian people.”
“Consolve the wounded and all those who have lost loved ones to war, and grant the prisoners the grace to be able to return to their families unharmed,” Pope Francis said.
Easter confirms the Christian belief that Jesus rose from the dead after being crucified. Welby, as archbishop of Canterbury and ceremonial head of Anglican Communion around the world, said the occasion offers hope that “true peace is not a vain dream, but a reality given because Christ rose from the dead.”
“Injustice and brutality seem to triumph in our short lives on earth, cruel and oppressive rulers can look as if they’ve only gotten stronger,” he said in a lecture in Canterbury, England. “However, they will disappear. The power of resurrection is infinitely greater than they are.”
From Saturday morning to Sunday, Russian forces conducted 40 airstrikes, 4 missile strikes and 58 multiple rocket launcher attacks on different regions of Ukraine, the Ministry of General Affairs said. plot the armed forces of Ukraine said.
According to the General Staff, Russia focused its attack on the Lyman, Bakhmut, Avdiivka and Marinka communities of Donetsk Oblast. Donetsk region governor Pavlo Kyrylenko said on Sunday morning that two civilians were injured on Saturday.
Officials in Kherson province, where Ukrainian forces forced Russia’s partial retreat in November, said the southern region had also suffered multiple attacks. They did not report any casualties.
The Institute for the Study of War, a Washington-based think tank, said late Saturday that it thinks the overall Russian offensive is “coming to a climax”.
The institute cited Ivan Tymochko, head of the Ukrainian Reserve Forces Council for the country’s ground forces, as reporting that recent Russian attacks appear to be designed to distract and disperse Ukrainian troops prepare for a potential counterattack.
“Tymochko claims that Russian forces have not made serious progress anywhere on the front lines,” the think tank said. Noting that Russia has used a lot of artillery to “compensate for major deficiencies in combat capabilities”, the institute said the report on ammunition shortages would “undermine the Russian military’s ability to continue to overcome their other weaknesses and limitations.”
