KYIV (Reuters) – President Volodymyr Zelenskiy urged the Ukrainians on Easter Sunday not to abandon the hope that peace will return to their country and to persevere to overcome the difficult way of war on which they have been traveling for 1,152 days.
Dressed in a traditional Ukrainian gray embroidered shirt Vysyvanka and standing in front of the main church of Kyiv, Saint-Sophia cathedral, Zelenskiy said in a social media video that Ukraine never loses faith.
“Because this faith is in each other,” said Zelenskiy, who is Jewish, in a message full of lyricism and emotion. “In those who stand next to you. In Ukrainian men, among Ukrainian women. Faith that evil can have his time but God will have his day.”
Russian President Vladimir Putin announced on Saturday a surprise ceasefire in Ukraine for Easter-which falls the same day this year for the Orthodox and Western churches. But Zelenskiy declared earlier Sunday that the Russian army was pretending to be a break in hostilities, pursuing attempts at night to inflict first -line losses in Ukraine.
“We know what we are defending. We know what we are fighting for. For whom and for which,” said Zelenskiy.
“The day of life will come. The day of peace. The day of Ukraine. A day that lasts a century. And we will be able to come together again. At a table. On a peaceful Easter.”
(Report from Pavel Polityuk to kyiv and Lidia Kelly in Melbourne; edition by William Mallard)
