Kyiv celebrates an uneasy Easter as one-day ceasefire between Russia and Ukraine frays

The scent of freshly baked panettone and the shimmer of vyshyvankas, traditional Ukrainian embroidered shirts, filled the streets of Kyiv this weekend, as families gathered to mark the Easter holiday.

KYIV, Ukraine — The scent of freshly baked panettone and the shimmer of vyshyvankas, traditional Ukrainian embroidered shirts, filled the streets of Kyiv this weekend, as families gathered to mark the Easter holiday.

But behind the color and warmth of celebration lay a quieter tension, one that has come to define daily life in wartime Ukraine, jarred again when the Kremlin announced a surprise ceasefire Saturday, promising a brief pause in the violence, though few here took that seriously.

The holiday offered a rare chance to exhale, but ask about the war and emotions rise fast. Russian President Vladimir Putin’s overtures to peace, they said, were meaningless.

A priest sprinkles holy water on parishioners and a priestess outside an Orthodox church in Kharkiv, in northeastern Ukraine, on Sunday.Nikoletta Stoyanova / Getty ImagesA basket of Ukrainian Easter pastries, traditionally blessed every year.Nikoletta Stoyanova / Getty ImagesTatiana Yemets, a 36-year-old accountant, stood on the St. Alexander Cathedral steps, soaking in the Kyiv sunshine.

“I do not believe in this,” she said of the ceasefire. “You can say a lot of things, but actions speak for themselves. I do not believe in this.”