Russian rockets kill two as rivals mark Orthodox Easter

A Russian rocket strike on Ukraine’s eastern Donetsk region killed two people and a drone attack on the northeastern city of Kharkiv injured at least six, officials have said.

The overnight attacks came as Orthodox Christians in Ukraine and Russia celebrated Easter.

“In Pokrovsk, rocket attacks killed two people and damaged a house,” Vadim Filashkin, Ukraine’s governor of the eastern Donetsk region, said in a post on Telegram.

Pokrovsk is around 60 kilometres northwest of Donetsk city, the Russian-held capital of the region which Moscow claims to have annexed.

Ukraine’s air force said Russia fired 24 Iranian-style “Shahed” drones at its territory overnight, 23 of which were shot down.

“A house and outbuildings were burned down as a result of ‘Shahed’ attacks.

Six people were injured, among them a girl born in 2015,” said Kharkiv Governor Oleg Synegubov on Telegram.

In Russia and Ukraine, leaders have used religion and the church institution to rally society behind the war effort.

Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky published a video message today from Kyiv’s Saint Sophia Cathedral in the centre of the capital.

Wearing a traditional Ukrainian vyshyvanka shirt, instead of his typical army-style clothes, he said: “We believe that God has a chevron with the Ukrainian flag on his shoulder.

“Therefore, with such an ally, life will definitely defeat death.”

An exhibition at the cathedral features religion icons painted on ammunition boxes.

In Russia, President Vladimir Putin did not explicitly mention the war – that Russia calls a “special military operation” – in his Easter message.

In a public address to Patriarch Kirill – head of the Russian Orthodox Church that strongly backs Moscow’s invasion of Ukraine – Mr Putin thanked him for “fruitful cooperation in the current difficult period, when it is so important for us to unite our efforts for the steady development and strengthening of the Fatherland.”

It comes as Russia said its armed forces had seized the village of Ocheretyne in Ukraine’s eastern Donetsk region, the latest in a string of small territorial gains for Moscow.

After capturing the nearby industrial hub of Avdiivka in February, Russia has pressed its manpower and weapons advantage on the battlefield, advancing several kilometres deeper into Ukraine in places.

The defence ministry said Russian troops had “completely liberated the village of Ocheretyne in the Donetsk People’s Republic”.

Ocheretyne is around 15 kilometres northwest of Avdiivka.

Ukraine’s commander-in-chief Oleksandr Syrsky said last week that Kyiv had pulled back from three villages in the eastern Donetsk region and was building a new line of fortifications.

Kyiv has struggled amid delays to vital Western weapons supplies in recent months and hopes the arrival of US arms will help it stabilise the front lines.