Ukraine: Ukrainian President Mr. Volodymyr Zelenskyy has condemned Russian air strikes that were held during the Orthodox Church’s observance of Palm Sunday, including an attack that killed a 50-year-old man and his 11-year-old daughter.

“This is how the terrorist state marks Palm Sunday. This is how Russia places itself in even greater isolation from the world,” the Ukrainian President stated in his nightly video address.

According to the Ukrainian emergency services, the man and his daughter were killed after Russian forces struck a residential building in the southeastern city of Zaporizhzhia. A woman who seemed like the wife and mother of the victims was found alive under rubble at the site of the attack.

Russia’s defence ministry recently commented that it had destroyed 70,000 tonnes of fuel near Zaporizhzhia, as well as warehouses storing missiles, ammunition, and artillery in the Zaporizhia and Donetsk regions.

Mr. Zelenskyy’s comments came as Ukraine’s military reported Russian strikes across the front, mostly on the eastern cities of Bakhmut and Avdiivka.

The President further praised military units defending positions in the east and expressed hope that the next Palm Sunday would take place at a time of “peace and freedom for all our people.”

Most of Ukraine’s 43 million people are Orthodox Christians who follow the Julian Calendar designed by Roman emperor Julius Caesar, meaning they celebrate Easter a week later than the majority of Christians in the West.

Pope Francis, the head of the Catholic Church, used his traditional Easter Sunday address to ask God to “comfort the wounded and all those who have lost loved ones” and “help the beloved Ukrainian people on their journey towards peace, and shed the light of Easter upon the people of Russia.”

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