‘A great pity’: Ukrainian village faces a churchless Easter

By CARA ANNA
Associated Press

LUKASHIVKA, Ukraine (AP) — A single metal cross remains inside the Orthodox church of shattered brick and blackened stone. Residents say Russian soldiers used the house of worship for storing ammunition, and Ukrainian forces shelled the building to make the Russians leave. There will be no Orthodox Easter service on Sunday at the church in Lukashivka, a village in northern Ukraine. “It’s a great pity,” a 70-year-old resident said on Good Friday as men dismantled Russian military vehicles abandoned nearby. The church had survived World War II and the most austere years of the Soviet Union, when authorities stripped it of religious icons. This time, locals think it will take years for the church to recover its past beauty.