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Sonja Zekri
For Orthodox Christianity, Easter, not Christmas, is the highest festival of the year. This year she celebrates it next Sunday – according to the Julian calendar. In Ukraine, the message of death and resurrection comes at a time of war that is testing the Orthodox community to the breaking point. As is so often the case, it is about the relationship with Russia that has evolved historically but is now intolerable for many, and when things go badly, the tensions in the communities are only indicators of future violent confrontations. “We are at war and everyone is armed,” says a senior religious affairs official in Kyiv. “We hope that we can continue to have the situation under control.”