Ukrainians mark Easter with little faith in Russia ceasefire

LUKASHIVKA, Ukraine (AP) — Dozens of Ukrainians gathered outside the ruins of a damaged church in northern Ukraine on Sunday to mark Easter, doubting a ceasefire with Russia is possible.

Kyiv has voiced skepticism about the Easter ceasefire announced by Russian President Vladimir Putin and said that Ukrainian forces would only mirror a genuine halt in hostilities. Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy said Saturday night that Russian strikes had continued, although with less intensity.

In the village of Lukashivka in the Chernihiv region, briefly occupied by Russian forces in 2022, parishioners of the damaged Ascension Church arrived early at a small makeshift wooden church built last year to cater to the needs of the faithful, holding traditional Easter baskets and cakes to have them blessed.

As the sun rose, they stood quietly in the spring chill, the roofless silhouette of the wrecked church behind them, its pale walls scarred by shell fragments.

The church’s priest, Serhii Zezul, walked among them, shouting “Christ is risen!” as he sprinkled holy water over the baskets — his voice nearly drowned out by the hum of a nearby generator.

The restoration of the original church, a 20th-century architectural landmark, would require at least hundreds of thousands of dollars, money the community doesn't have as the war rages on.

Since the start of Russia's full-scale invasion in February 2022, about 530 churches across Ukraine have been damaged or destroyed, and at least 25 clergy members have been killed, according to Ruslan Khalikov, head of the “Religion on Fire” project, which monitors Russian war crimes against religious communities.

“A destroyed church is a shattered soul of the community,” Zezul said. “When churches fall, the heart and core that unite people begin to collapse.”

More people than usual gathered in the damaged church's courtyard on Sunday. Some said they drove from cities to Lukashivka to mark Easter, fearing Russian forces might target large gatherings, especially after a recent string of missile strikes killed dozens of civilians.

For 26 years, 44-year-old Olha Rudeno attended church in the nearby city of Chernihiv, where she got married.

“But given the war, it’s psychologically difficult for me to go where there are large gatherings in cities,” she said.

Rudeno doesn't think a ceasefire with Russia will happen.

“Believing in a ceasefire is deceiving yourself. I don’t know how much time has to pass for me to truly believe one is possible," she said.

Doubt of a truce between Russia and Ukraine has deepened as U.S.-led efforts have so far yielded no breakthrough. Moscow has effectively rejected a separate, comprehensive ceasefire proposal, backed by President Donald Trump and endorsed by Ukraine. The Kremlin has tied any agreement to a halt in Kyiv’s troop mobilization and Western arms supplies — conditions Ukraine has refused, fearing they would allow Russia to regroup and escalate.

“My personal opinion is that there will be no ceasefire,” said Zezul. “And even if there is one, there are no details on where it would apply. On the front line, our soldiers are still fighting.”

Still, Zezul said that celebrating Easter among ruins reflects the resilience of faith during war. “Despite everything, people still gather. They believe in something better. We are being reborn, we are standing back up. Truth always triumphs over evil. People believe that, they hope for that.”

In his Easter message, Zelenskyy reflected on suffering and the struggle to hold on to faith. “Each of us has lived through such moments ... and you ask: ‘God, why is this happening to us?’”

He also mentioned the deadly missile strike on Sumy during Palm Sunday, and the bombardments of Kryvyi Rih, Kharkiv, Dnipro, Odesa, and other cities, saying people tend to turn inward when they can't make sense of things.

"Something invisible yet powerful within us doesn’t let us give up. It shows us where to find the light, so we don’t lose our way.”

Follow AP’s coverage of the war in Ukraine at https://apnews.com/hub/russia-ukraine

A church destroyed in fighting between Russian and Ukrainian forces is seen from above during celebration of the Orthodox Easter in Lukashivka village, Ukraine, on Sunday, April 20, 2025. (AP Photo/Evgeniy Maloletka)

A women is blessed by a priest during celebration of the Orthodox Easter in Krasne village, Ukraine, on Sunday, April 20, 2025. (AP Photo/Evgeniy Maloletka)

Easter baskets are seen during celebration of the Orthodox Easter in Krasne village, Ukraine, on Sunday, April 20, 2025. (AP Photo/Evgeniy Maloletka)

A priest Serhii Zezul blesses Easter baskets in front of a church destroyed in fighting between Russian and Ukrainian forces, during celebration of the Orthodox Easter in Lukashivka village, Ukraine, on Sunday, April 20, 2025. (AP Photo/Evgeniy Maloletka)

A church destroyed in fighting between Russian and Ukrainian forces is seen during celebration of the Orthodox Easter in Lukashivka village, Ukraine, on Sunday, April 20, 2025. (AP Photo/Evgeniy Maloletka)

People stand in line to have their Easter baskets blessed during celebration of the Orthodox Easter in Krasne village, Ukraine, on Sunday, April 20, 2025. (AP Photo/Evgeniy Maloletka)

People stand in line to have their Easter baskets blessed in front of a church destroyed in fighting between Russian and Ukrainian forces, during celebration of the Orthodox Easter in Lukashivka village, Ukraine, on Sunday, April 20, 2025. (AP Photo/Evgeniy Maloletka)

An elderly woman prepares her Easter baskets to be blessed during celebration of the Orthodox Easter in Krasne village, Ukraine, on Sunday, April 20, 2025. (AP Photo/Evgeniy Maloletka)

Priest Serhii Zezul blesses Easter baskets in front of a church destroyed in fighting between Russian and Ukrainian forces, during celebration of the Orthodox Easter in Lukashivka village, Ukraine, on Sunday, April 20, 2025. (AP Photo/Evgeniy Maloletka)

A church destroyed in fighting between Russian and Ukrainian forces is seen from above during celebration of the Orthodox Easter in Lukashivka village, Ukraine, on Sunday, April 20, 2025. (AP Photo/Evgeniy Maloletka)

People prepare their Easter baskets to be blessed in front of a church destroyed in fighting between Russian and Ukrainian forces, during celebration of the Orthodox Easter in Lukashivka village, Ukraine, on Sunday, April 20, 2025. (AP Photo/Evgeniy Maloletka)

Priest Serhii Zezul blesses Easter baskets in front of a church destroyed in fighting between Russian and Ukrainian forces, during celebration of the Orthodox Easter in Lukashivka village, Ukraine, on Sunday, April 20, 2025. (AP Photo/Evgeniy Maloletka)

WASHINGTON (AP) — Becky Pepper-Jackson finished third in the discus throw in West Virginia last year though she was in just her first year of high school. Now a 15-year-old sophomore, Pepper-Jackson is aware that her upcoming season could be her last.

West Virginia has banned transgender girls like Pepper-Jackson from competing in girls and women's sports, and is among the more than two dozen states with similar laws. Though the West Virginia law has been blocked by lower courts, the outcome could be different at the conservative-dominated Supreme Court, which has allowed multiple restrictions on transgender people to be enforced in the past year.

The justices are hearing arguments Tuesday in two cases over whether the sports bans violate the Constitution or the landmark federal law known as Title IX that prohibits sex discrimination in education. The second case comes from Idaho, where college student Lindsay Hecox challenged that state's law.

Decisions are expected by early summer.

President Donald Trump's Republican administration has targeted transgender Americans from the first day of his second term, including ousting transgender people from the military and declaring that gender is immutable and determined at birth.

Pepper-Jackson has become the face of the nationwide battle over the participation of transgender girls in athletics that has played out at both the state and federal levels as Republicans have leveraged the issue as a fight for athletic fairness for women and girls.

“I think it’s something that needs to be done,” Pepper-Jackson said in an interview with The Associated Press that was conducted over Zoom. “It’s something I’m here to do because ... this is important to me. I know it’s important to other people. So, like, I’m here for it.”

She sat alongside her mother, Heather Jackson, on a sofa in their home just outside Bridgeport, a rural West Virginia community about 40 miles southwest of Morgantown, to talk about a legal fight that began when she was a middle schooler who finished near the back of the pack in cross-country races.

Pepper-Jackson has grown into a competitive discus and shot put thrower. In addition to the bronze medal in the discus, she finished eighth among shot putters.

She attributes her success to hard work, practicing at school and in her backyard, and lifting weights. Pepper-Jackson has been taking puberty-blocking medication and has publicly identified as a girl since she was in the third grade, though the Supreme Court's decision in June upholding state bans on gender-affirming medical treatment for minors has forced her to go out of state for care.

Her very improvement as an athlete has been cited as a reason she should not be allowed to compete against girls.

“There are immutable physical and biological characteristic differences between men and women that make men bigger, stronger, and faster than women. And if we allow biological males to play sports against biological females, those differences will erode the ability and the places for women in these sports which we have fought so hard for over the last 50 years,” West Virginia's attorney general, JB McCuskey, said in an AP interview. McCuskey said he is not aware of any other transgender athlete in the state who has competed or is trying to compete in girls or women’s sports.

Despite the small numbers of transgender athletes, the issue has taken on outsize importance. The NCAA and the U.S. Olympic and Paralympic Committees banned transgender women from women's sports after Trump signed an executive order aimed at barring their participation.

The public generally is supportive of the limits. An Associated Press-NORC Center for Public Affairs Research poll conducted in October 2025 found that about 6 in 10 U.S. adults “strongly” or “somewhat” favored requiring transgender children and teenagers to only compete on sports teams that match the sex they were assigned at birth, not the gender they identify with, while about 2 in 10 were “strongly” or “somewhat” opposed and about one-quarter did not have an opinion.

About 2.1 million adults, or 0.8%, and 724,000 people age 13 to 17, or 3.3%, identify as transgender in the U.S., according to the Williams Institute at the UCLA School of Law.

Those allied with the administration on the issue paint it in broader terms than just sports, pointing to state laws, Trump administration policies and court rulings against transgender people.

"I think there are cultural, political, legal headwinds all supporting this notion that it’s just a lie that a man can be a woman," said John Bursch, a lawyer with the conservative Christian law firm Alliance Defending Freedom that has led the legal campaign against transgender people. “And if we want a society that respects women and girls, then we need to come to terms with that truth. And the sooner that we do that, the better it will be for women everywhere, whether that be in high school sports teams, high school locker rooms and showers, abused women’s shelters, women’s prisons.”

But Heather Jackson offered different terms to describe the effort to keep her daughter off West Virginia's playing fields.

“Hatred. It’s nothing but hatred,” she said. "This community is the community du jour. We have a long history of isolating marginalized parts of the community.”

Pepper-Jackson has seen some of the uglier side of the debate on display, including when a competitor wore a T-shirt at the championship meet that said, “Men Don't Belong in Women's Sports.”

“I wish these people would educate themselves. Just so they would know that I’m just there to have a good time. That’s it. But it just, it hurts sometimes, like, it gets to me sometimes, but I try to brush it off,” she said.

One schoolmate, identified as A.C. in court papers, said Pepper-Jackson has herself used graphic language in sexually bullying her teammates.

Asked whether she said any of what is alleged, Pepper-Jackson said, “I did not. And the school ruled that there was no evidence to prove that it was true.”

The legal fight will turn on whether the Constitution's equal protection clause or the Title IX anti-discrimination law protects transgender people.

The court ruled in 2020 that workplace discrimination against transgender people is sex discrimination, but refused to extend the logic of that decision to the case over health care for transgender minors.

The court has been deluged by dueling legal briefs from Republican- and Democratic-led states, members of Congress, athletes, doctors, scientists and scholars.

The outcome also could influence separate legal efforts seeking to bar transgender athletes in states that have continued to allow them to compete.

If Pepper-Jackson is forced to stop competing, she said she will still be able to lift weights and continue playing trumpet in the school concert and jazz bands.

“It will hurt a lot, and I know it will, but that’s what I’ll have to do,” she said.

Heather Jackson, left, and Becky Pepper-Jackson pose for a photograph outside of the U.S. Supreme Court in Washington, Sunday, Jan. 11, 2026. (AP Photo/Jose Luis Magana)

Heather Jackson, left, and Becky Pepper-Jackson pose for a photograph outside of the U.S. Supreme Court in Washington, Sunday, Jan. 11, 2026. (AP Photo/Jose Luis Magana)

Becky Pepper-Jackson poses for a photograph outside of the U.S. Supreme Court in Washington, Sunday, Jan. 11, 2026. (AP Photo/Jose Luis Magana)

The Supreme Court stands is Washington, Friday, Jan. 9, 2026. (AP Photo/J. Scott Applewhite)

FILE - Protestors hold signs during a rally at the state capitol in Charleston, W.Va., on March 9, 2023. (AP Photo/Chris Jackson, file)