Dozens of families had special reasons to rejoice, as presidential adviser Andriy Yermak announced that 130 soldiers, sailors, border guards and others captured by Moscow were on their way home following a 'big Easter prisoner exchange.'
The Associated PressA woman comforts two children by the grave of a relative who died fighting against the Russian invasion of Ukraine, at the Field of Mars in Lviv, Ukraine, on Orthodox Easter Sunday.While celebrations were subdued because of security risks, with a curfew barring the faithful from customary all-night services, Ukrainian authorities and ordinary people shared messages of hope, linking the story of Jesus's resurrection to their longing for peace and a Ukrainian victory.
There was no immediate information on how many Russian prisoners were released, but the press service of the founder of the Wagner Group, the Kremlin-affiliated paramilitary force whose fighters are prominent in eastern Ukraine, also released a video on Sunday showing Ukrainian prisoners of war being readied for an exchange.
Ukrainian churches are usually crowded on Orthodox Easter Sunday. But this year, the wide courtyard was barely half full, and the line of people waiting for the priest to sprinkle holy water on their adorned baskets was moving briskly. Another worshipper, Tetiana Voloshyna, said she was praying for Ukrainian troops, "who defend us and make it possible for us to have this holiday." She added she had come to the monastery with her "personal pain and personal requests to God for victory, peace and life."
Kirill has repeatedly spoken out in support of Russia's February 2022 invasion of Ukraine. In a video message broadcast on Russian state television late Saturday, before the start of the Easter service in Moscow, Kirill lamented "grave events taking place on our Russian historical land" in reference to the war, echoing the Kremlin's claim that an independent Ukraine is essentially a fiction.
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