Ukraine President Volodymyr Zelenskiy in front of St. Sophia Cathedral in Kyiv: “We believe God has a chevron with the Ukrainian flag on his shoulder”

Sunday’s Coverage: Russian Attacks on 3 Regions; Moscow’s Su-25 Warplane Downed

Map: Institute for the Study of War

UPDATE 1412 GMT:

In the latest setback for Russia’s Black Sea Fleet, a speedboat has been destroyed by a Ukrainian naval “kamikaze” drone in Vuzka Bay in Russian-occupied Crimea.

UPDATE 1357 GMT:

Russian forces have struck the Kharkiv region in northeast Ukraine with a 3,000-pound air-dropped bomb for the first time in the 26 1/2-month invasion.

The FAB-1500 attacked the village of Monachynivka on Sunday during Orthodox Easter. An 88-year-old woman was killed and a 34-year-old man injured (see Original Entry).

About half of the bomb is made up of high explosives. It has a special module so it can glide in the air after being dropped.

UPDATE 1300 GMT:

Germany has recalled its ambassador to Russia, protesting Russia’s cyber-attacks on the Social Democratic political party and defense and aerospace firms.

Ambassador Alexander Graf Lambsdorff is returning to Berlin three days after Russia’s envoy was summoned over the campaign by a hacking group linked to the Russian military intelligence agency GRU.

The attacks knocked several sites off-line and compromised the servers of some companies. German Foreign Minister Annalena Baerbock summarized, “[This] was a state-sponsored Russian cyber-attack on Germany, and this is absolutely intolerable and unacceptable and will have consequences.”

A Foreign Ministry spokesperson said Germany will not be present at Tuesday’s inauguration of Vladimir Putin for his next six-year term in office.

Thomas Haldenwang, the head of German domestic intelligence, told a security conference last month, “We assess the risk of state-controlled acts of sabotage to be significantly increased.” He said Russia is pursuing operations on European soil with “a high potential for damage”.

UPDATE 0708 GMT:

Air defenses downed 12 of 13 Iran-type attack drones fired overnight from Russia’s Kursk region.

The UAVs were intercepted over the Sumy region in northern Ukraine. A high-voltage facility was damaged. Repair crews are working on the restoration of energy supply to households.

ORIGINAL ENTRY: As Ukraine celebrated Orthodox Easter on Sunday, Russian attacks killed at least three civilians.

In and near Ukraine’s second city of Kharkiv, a woman was buried under rubble and killed and 24 others were injured. Power was cut in parts of the region and in neighboring Sumy.

The Russians are pounding Kharkiv — about 30 km (19 km) from the border — each day with missiles and drones, hoping to break energy infrastructure and civilian morale.

In Donetsk in eastern Ukraine, two people were killed by shelling in the town of Pokrovsk. Two were injured in Chasiv Yar, the strategic town which the Russians are trying to overrun.

In his video message for Easter, recorded outside St. Sophia Cathedral in Kyiv, Ukraine President Volodymyr Zelenskiy said:

We believe God has a chevron with the Ukrainian flag on his shoulder. So with such an ally, life will definitely win over death.

Vladimir Putin did not mention his 26 1/2-month invasion as he attended an Easter service in Moscow. Instead, he praised Patriarch Kirill — head of the Russian Orthodox Church, former operative in Russian intelligence services, and a leading campaigner for the war — for his “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”.