Easter without a truce in the Ukrainian war

Russians and Ukrainians celebrated Orthodox Eastereach in their trenches on the front line, where not even a common religious holiday was a reason for a pause in the fighting, although the Ukrainian authorities announced a new exchange of prisoners.

The Russian military command reported that Mercenaries of the Wagner Group They advanced in Bakhmut (Artyomovsk for the Russians), a city in eastern Ukraine where fierce fighting has been raging since last August.

“On the Donetsk front, Wagner’s assault detachments liberated two blocks in the northwest and southeast of the city of Artyomovsk“, said the spokesman of that portfolio, General Igor Konashenkov, in his daily report on the progress of the Russian military campaign in Ukraine.

As in the previous days, the soldier added, the Wagners had their own support to airborne forces unitswhich covered their flanks and held back the Ukrainian troops

Konashenkov added that Russian aviation and artillery hit the units Ukrainian Armed Forces which tried to carry out a counterattack near the towns of Maloilinivka and Sacco and Vanzetti, northwest and north of Bakhmut.

although calls for an Easter truce did not bear fruitprogress was announced in the exchange of prisoners.

“The great Easter exchange of prisoners. We found 130 of our own. This happened in the last few days in several stages,” wrote the head of the Office of the President of Ukraine Andriy Jermak on his Telegram account.

Among those freed are soldiers and officers who were captured in Bakhmut, Soledar, Zaporizhia and Kherson frontsin eastern and southern Ukraine, he added.

“Ours are coming home. It’s Easter. The essence of this party is hope. This is exactly what the relatives of the prisoners who have been waiting for them felt for so long,” said Yermak.

He added that “the lives of our people are our greatest value” and quoted the words of v Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky: “Heroes must live”.