Ukraine’s president has branded Russia a “terrorist state” in a speech decrying the attacks that coincide with Easter celebrations.
Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky has condemned Russian airstrikes carried out during the Orthodox Church’s Palm Sunday celebrations, including one that killed a 50-year-old man and his 11-year-old daughter.
“This is how the terrorist state marks Palm Sunday,” Zelenskyy said in his nightly video address. “In this way Russia places itself in even greater isolation from the world.”
Ukrainian emergency services said the man and his daughter were killed after Russian troops attacked a residential building in the southeastern city of Zaporizhzhia.
A woman, believed to be the victims’ wife and mother, was found alive under the rubble at the site of the attack.
Russia’s defense ministry said it had destroyed 70,000 tons of fuel near Zaporizhzhia, as well as missile, ammunition and artillery depots in the Zaporizhia and Donetsk regions.
Zelensky’s comments came as the Ukrainian military reported Russian attacks across the front, with fighting most concentrated in the eastern cities of Bakhmut and Avdiivka.
Zelensky praised military units defending positions in the east and expressed hope that the next Palm Sunday would take place in 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 who have lost loved ones” and “help the beloved Ukrainian people on their journey to peace, and let the light shine of Easter on the people of Russia”.
The Ukrainian army has reported that it has repelled more than 40 attacks by Russian forces in the past 24 hours, including failed advances into areas west of the eastern city of Bakhmut.
Bakhmut, a city in Donetsk, has been the site of the longest battle in Russia’s 13-month war against Ukraine. Analysts say the Kremlin sees taking Bakhmut as an important step towards capturing strategically important and heavily fortified cities and towns in the Donbas region, such as Chasiv Yar, Kramatorsk and Sloviansk.
Ukrainian officials have promised to defend Bakhmut against repeated Russian attacks, but Zelensky has acknowledged that troops could be withdrawn if they risk being surrounded.
Ukrainian officials also reported that Kharkiv to the northeast and Zaporizhia to the southeast came under rocket, missile and artillery fire.
Kharkiv governor Oleh Syniehubov said two men were killed in the city of Kupiansk on Sunday after multiple rocket launchers hit residential areas.
Syniehubov said a 30-year-old man was also hospitalized in serious condition after shelling from Chuhuiv city.