KYIV (Reuters) - President Volodymyr Zelenskiy urged Ukrainians on Easter Sunday not to give up hope that peace will return to their country and to persevere to overcome the difficult path of war on which they have been travelling for 1,152 days.
Wearing a grey traditional Ukrainian vyshyvanka embroidered shirt and standing in front of Kyiv's main church, Saint Sophia Cathedral, Zelenskiy said in a social media video that Ukraine never loses faith.
"Because this faith is in each other," said Zelenskiy, who is Jewish, in a message filled with lyricism and emotion. "In those who stand next to you. In Ukrainian men, in Ukrainian women. Faith that evil may have its hour but God will have his day."
Russian President Vladimir Putin announced a surprise one-day ceasefire in Ukraine on Saturday for Easter - which falls on the same day this year for Orthodox and Western churches. But Zelenskiy said earlier on Sunday that the Russian army was making a pretence of a pause in hostilities, continuing overnight attempts to inflict front-line losses on Ukraine.
"We know what we are defending. We know what we are fighting for. For whom and for whose sake," Zelenskiy said.
"The day of life will come. The day of peace. The day of Ukraine. A day that lasts a century. And we will be able to gather together again. At one table. On a peaceful Easter."
(Reporting by Pavel Polityuk in Kyiv and Lidia Kelly in Melbourne; Editing by William Mallard)
