Our communication was not easy. I have been trying for several days, without success, to find an expatriate Alexey Lipiridi, fighting on the front line with the Russian invaders. I wanted days to talk about it Easter in the trenches. Finally he called me somewhere from his forehead Donetsk V Eastern Ukraine. He did not tell me the exact location because, as he (correctly) said, it is a military secret. “You will find me at Abri, twenty kilometers from Bahamut. The fiercest battles of the war are taking place there,” he says.

I asked him if a truce had been agreed, at least for a few hours, so that the warring parties – since they are both Orthodox Christians – could peacefully celebrate the Resurrection in the trenches, bearing in mind the historic ceasefire in the trenches of the Western Front during the First World War, so that the German, French and British soldiers celebrated Christmas.

“Ah, well, I’ve never heard of such a thing. But I don’t think that’s why in the eight years that we have been fighting here (against pro-Russian separatist forces), since 2014, that is, when we said ceasefire, New Year, Easter, etc., it didn’t work.”

– Are you getting ready for Easter? I continued. “No, nothing. They can send us eggs, candles, pretzels, but that’s all. We stay in our positions with a finger on the trigger, this is how the celebration of the Resurrection will be.”

I asked the emigrant Alexei Lipiridi, a simple warrior who risks his life, defending, as he emphasized to me, his country, freedom and his family, to comment on the fact that Christian blood flows in his homeland, Orthodox kill Orthodox. “They don’t care about faith in Christ, or the church, or nationality. Russia is a warlike and aggressive country. They even brought fanatical Islamist Chechens, and they are fighting with us,” he told me and wanted to send a wish to the Greeks.

“Together with the Risen Christ, I wish that no enemy invades your homeland, and if this happens, you will protect the earth and protect your families. I know that it is difficult with Turkey in Greece, I also know that 40% of the Greeks support the Russians, they believe the propaganda that Putin is a good leader, but this is not at all the case.”

At the monastery of the Lavra

Far from the fronts, civil war on Ukrainian territory Orthodox Church rages around the historic Lavra in Kyiv. This year, Easter found the Church of Ukraine in its “trenches”. In the monastery “Pechersk Lavra” with its golden domes, the so-called Vatican of Eastern Orthodoxy, the drama of Orthodoxy is unfolding today. Palm Sunday was celebrated with two separate liturgies, two of which would be Sundays the following Sunday.

Russian monks loyal to the Moscow Patriarchate are refusing to leave the monastery’s sketes, according to the Ukrainian government, which is conducting an operation to dismantle the structures of the pro-Russian wing of the Church, which it considers to be conduits of Russian propaganda. Clashes and tensions erupted outside the Lavra Monastery when clergy and parishioners of the Ukrainian Orthodox Church (UOC), which Kyiv says has ties to the Moscow Patriarchate, violated an eviction order.

According to the Ukrainian government, the Lavra, where the leader of the pro-Russian wing Onufriy is also based, is the center of propaganda for the “Russian world” and, to strengthen its claims, released a video of a sermon by the priest of the monastery talking about the “awakening” of Russia.

“They can send us eggs, candles, pretzels, but that’s about it. We remain in our positions,” says expatriate Aleksey Lipiridi.

At the same time, Ukrainian security forces are conducting raids on the shrines of churches throughout the territory, from where they publish photos of rubles, Russian passports and leaflets with messages from the Moscow Patriarch as evidence of the loyalty of some church leaders to Russia. In this atmosphere, the Ukrainian parliament is considering the possibility of adopting a law banning the activities of religious organizations associated with centers of influence in the Russian Federation. In fact, the general Russian-Ukrainian war also spread to churches and monasteries, not excluding Athos. But mainly in the souls of believers.