Ukrainians begin their Easter celebrations, a week after Roman Catholics, with the holiday around Orthodox Palm Sunday, though their thoughts turn to supporting family, friends and soldiers fighting on the front lines.
In Lviv, families in festive dress flocked to the city’s churches to attend masses, carrying their willow branches to receive holy water.
In the Ukraine, the willow tree symbolizes the palm fronds used to greet Jesus Christ upon his arrival in Jerusalem. It is one of the plants that sprouts first after winter, when the relatively warm days of early spring still alternate with occasional snowfalls.
Their branches also want to represent now that the expected Ukrainian counteroffensive is getting closer.
Various military analysts, as well as Defense Minister Oleksiy Reznikov, consider that it is likely to start in the next two months, when the weather is more favorable and once the “assault pincer” of the Ukrainian troops is ready.
Despite being a thousand kilometers away from the front line, the reality of war cannot be escaped by the news of two civilians, father and daughter, killed in their home in a nightly Russian attack on Zaporizhia. Many uniformed men accompany their children and wives to Lviv churches, but have to rush back to their places of service.
Hopes for a quick recovery of the occupied territories, which, together with Crimea, account for 18% of the country’s territory, are mixed with uncertainty about the persistence of support from the Western allies.
“Every day I see burial processions of murdered soldiers passing by,” says Maria Dzvin, an employee at Lviv’s Faculty of Veterinary Medicine. “How could the world be so blind to what Russia was doing?” she asks herself rhetorically.
Maria, whose family was deported by the Soviet regime from Moscow after the occupation of Lviv in 1939, says that as early as 2013, when protests against pro-Russian President Viktor Yanukovych were gaining strength, she felt that Russia would end up attacking. She still finds it hard to believe that something like this could happen “in the 21st century,” she adds.
“Why didn’t our allies give us the weapons we needed to repel the Russians sooner? Why did they take so long and not until now?” he continues.
Despite everything, Maria believes in a Ukrainian victory, like 93% of her compatriots, according to the latest poll by the Razumkov Center.
On her table is a carefully decorated willow bouquet, made by the students of her university. She bought it at a fair where students raise funds for the Ukrainian army.
“It was the students’ initiative,” explains Marta Kunytska, a finance professor, to Efe. “They want to support our soldiers. So they know we are with them.”
The funds raised from the 150 bouquets sold, about 500 euros, were given to the “Ukrainian Drive Power” volunteer foundation, which buys vans abroad, delivers them to the front and repairs those damaged by shelling.
Some 15 vehicles left for the front the next day. The funds raised were used to pay for fuel.
“Thanks to these initiatives we can continue to support our soldiers,” said the co-founder of that initiative, Sergiy Gulyk, as he handed out a flag signed by Ukrainian soldiers to the students.
The vehicles are sorely needed to enable soldiers to move more quickly, deliver ammunition, and evacuate the wounded.
“It is also important that soldiers feel the support of those they protect,” Gulyk stressed.
These soldiers, who are fighting to contain the Russian pressure on the front lines in Donbas, need all the support while buying time. Ukraine awaits the heavy weapons of its allies and prepares tens of thousands of soldiers to liberate the territories occupied by Russia.
“I hope that next year’s fair is dedicated to another cause, with the war over,” Kunytska told Efe.
According to the criteria of The Trust Project
