Ukrainians gather together to mark Easter with little faith in ceasefire with Russia

Ukrainians are gathering together to mark Easter, with little faith in the possibility of a ceasefire with Russia as both sides accuse the other of breaking a temporary truce.

Russian president Vladimir Putin announced a unilateral 30-hour ceasefire from Saturday evening to midnight on Easter Sunday, citing humanitarian reasons.

But Ukrainian president Volodymyr Zelensky has accused Mr Putin of breaking his own truce by launching hundreds of artillery and drone attacks at Ukraine, especially near the border where Ukrainian forces maintain footholds in Russia's Kursk and Belgorod regions.

Later on Sunday, Russia's defence ministry then claimed Ukraine had broken the Easter ceasefire more than a thousand times, inflicting damages to infrastructure and causing civilian deaths.

Having already voiced skepticism about the Easter ceasefire, Kyiv said it would only mirror a genuine halt in hostilities, while Mr Zelensky has reiterated Ukraine's offer of a 30-day, full and unconditional ceasefire and called on Moscow to respond.

Meanwhile, dozens of Ukrainian civilians gathered outside the ruins of a damaged church in northern Ukraine on Sunday to mark Easter, doubting a ceasefire with Russia might be possible.

In the village of Lukashivka in the Chernihiv region, briefly occupied by Russian forces in 2022, parishioners of the damaged Ascension Church arrived early at a small makeshift wooden church built last year to cater to the needs of the faithful, holding traditional Easter baskets and cakes to have them blessed.

As the sun rose, they stood quietly in the spring chill, the roofless silhouette of the wrecked church behind them, its pale walls scarred by shell fragments. The church's priest Serhii Zezul walked among them, shouting “Christ is risen!” as he sprinkled holy water over the baskets – his voice nearly drowned out by the hum of a nearby generator.

More people than usual gathered in the damaged church’s courtyard on Sunday. Some said they drove from cities to Lukashivka to mark Easter, fearing Russian forces might target large gatherings, especially after a recent string of missile strikes killed dozens of civilians.

For 26 years, 44-year-old Olha Rudeno attended church in the nearby city of Chernihiv, where she got married. “But given the war, it's psychologically difficult for me to go where there are large gatherings in cities,” she said.

Mr Rudeno does not think a ceasefire with Russia will happen. “Believing in a ceasefire is deceiving yourself. I don't know how much time has to pass for me to truly believe one is possible,” she said.

Elsewhere in Ukraine, believers attended a ceremony of blessing Easter cakes and traditional food baskets in the town of Bucha in the Kyiv region on Sunday. It followed an Easter service at the St Andrew's Church.

Ukrainians also prepared Easter baskets to be blessed during celebrations of the Orthodox Easter in Krasne village.

Others were seen being sprayed with holy water by an Orthodox priest during an Easter service in Chernihiv early in the morning.

On Saturday evening, priests were blessing Easter baskets and reading prayers during a celebration of the Orthodox Easter in Lviv, Ukraine.

Doubt of a truce between Russia and Ukraine has deepened as US-led efforts have so far yielded no breakthrough. Moscow has effectively rejected a separate, comprehensive ceasefire proposal, backed by US president Donald Trump and endorsed by Ukraine, tying any agreement to a halt in Kyiv's troop mobilisation and Western arms supplies – conditions Ukraine has refused, fearing they would allow Russia to regroup and escalate.

“My personal opinion is that there will be no ceasefire,” said Mr Zezul. “And even if there is one, there are no details on where it would apply. On the frontline, our soldiers are still fighting.”

Still, Mr Zezul said that celebrating Easter among ruins reflects the resilience of faith during war. “Despite everything, people still gather. They believe in something better. We are being reborn, we are standing back up. Truth always triumphs over evil. People believe that, they hope for that.”

The restoration of the original Ascension Church in Lukashivka, a 20th-century architectural landmark, would require at least hundreds of thousands of dollars, money the community does not have as the war rages on.

Since the start of Russia's full-scale invasion in February 2022, about 530 churches across Ukraine have been damaged or destroyed, and at least 25 clergy members have been killed, according to Ruslan Khalikov, head of the “Religion on Fire” project, which monitors Russian war crimes against religious communities.

“A destroyed church is a shattered soul of the community,” Mr Zezul said. “When churches fall, the heart and core that unite people begin to collapse.”

In his Easter message, Mr Zelensky reflected on suffering and the struggle to hold on to faith. “Each of us has lived through such moments ... and you ask: ‘God, why is this happening to us?’”

He also mentioned the deadly missile strike on Sumy during Palm Sunday, and the bombardments of Kryvyi Rih, Kharkiv, Dnipro, Odesa, and other cities, saying people tend to turn inward when they cannot make sense of things.

“Something invisible yet powerful within us doesn't let us give up. It shows us where to find the light, so we don't lose our way.”