As Ukraine marked its third Easter at war, Russia yesterday launched a barrage of drones concentrated in Ukraine’s east and claimed its troops took control of a village they had been targeting.
The Ukrainian Air Force yesterday said that Russia had launched 24 Shahed drones, of which 23 had been shot down by air defenses.
Six people, including a child, were wounded in a drone strike in the eastern Kharkiv region, Kharkiv Governor Oleh Syniehubov said.
Photo: Reuters
Fires broke out when debris from drones that were shot down fell on buildings in the neighboring Dnipropetrovsk region. No casualties were reported.
The Russian Ministry of Defense said its troops had taken control of the village of Ocheretyne, which has been in the crosshairs of Russian forces in the Donetsk region of eastern Ukraine.
Drone footage obtained by The Associated Press showed the village battered by fighting. Not a single person is seen in the footage obtained late on Friday, and no building in Ocheretyne appears to have been left untouched by the fighting.
Officials in Kyiv urged residents to follow Orthodox Easter services online due to safety concerns.
Serhiy Popko, the head of Kyiv’s military administration, said that “even on such bright days of celebration, we can expect evil deeds from the aggressor.”
In his Easter address, Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskiy called on Ukrainians to be “united in one common prayer.”
In a video filmed in front of Kyiv’s Saint Sophia Cathedral, wearing a traditional Vyshyvanka embroidered shirt, Zelenskiy said that God “has a chevron with the Ukrainian flag on his shoulder.”
With “such an ally, life will definitely win over death,” Zelenskiy said.
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