(Lukashivka) Only one metal cross remains inside the church of broken bricks and blackened stone. Russian soldiers used the shrine to store ammunition, residents said, and Ukrainian forces shelled the building to drive the Russians out.
Posted at 12:11 p.m.
There will be no Orthodox Christian Easter mass here on Sunday in this small village in northern Ukraine.
One of the church’s golden domes has been torn off. Its golden cross is leaned against an exterior wall.
“It’s very unfortunate,” said resident Valentina Ivanivna, 70, standing with her bicycle as men dismantled nearby abandoned Russian military vehicles on Orthodox Good Friday.
Photo Petros Giannakouris, Associated Press
Valentina Ivanivna
The church in Lukashivka, a village near the town of Chernihiv, survived World War II and the most austere years of the Soviet Union, a time when authorities stripped it of its religious icons, said the inhabitants.
This time, the citizens think that it will take years for the church to regain its former beauty.
Its bells fell on unstable ground littered with ammunition casings and tins of Russian meat. A candle holder remains intact, along with a dented teapot and a pasta strainer.
Photo Petros Giannakouris, Associated Press
A candlestick held up against the bombardments.
Outside, the finned part of a rocket is stuck in the mud.
The villagers promised to rebuild, whatever the cost. They have already started to build their own houses, even while waiting for basic services to resume.
There is no gas available to bake Easter bread. Around the corner, military chaplain Volodymyr Vyshtyvkin and volunteers were handing out food and Bible verses.
“Remember, Jesus was resurrected,” the chaplain told them. Ukraine will do the same. »
He also called on villagers to pray for those on the front line in places like Mariupol, a southern town the Russians are determined to take and continued to shell Friday.
The resistance never died during the local occupation of Lukashivka, said 64-year-old Valentyna Golyak.
Photo Petros Giannakouris, Associated Press
“You will stay on this land as fertilizer,” she told the Russian soldiers, believing that these men did not believe in God.
Mme Golyak maintains that she also told Russian soldiers that she had lived her whole life without a war and expected to die the same way.
“Instead, the soldiers damaged or destroyed almost every house in the village. And the church, which was so beautiful,” she said.
The famous, however, celebrates a new life since her daughter gave birth in a village basement during the Russian occupation. The baby girl, whose name is Victoria, turned 1 month old on Saturday.