Grim Orthodox Easter marked

KYIV/MOSCOW－Ukrainian authorities on Saturday urged those celebrating Orthodox Easter to follow religious services online and to respect curfews amid fighting with Russian troops despite a holiday that usually attracts crowds.

Both Russia and Ukraine celebrated Orthodox Easter on Sunday, with fierce fighting casting a long shadow over the holiday.

Kyiv Mayor Vitali Klitschko said a curfew would be in effect from 11:00 pm on Saturday until 5:00 am on Sunday.

This year's Easter celebrations in the country coincide with the US top officials' visit to Kyiv, a message confirmed by Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky on Sunday.

If on schedule, US Secretary of State Antony Blinken and Defense Secretary Lloyd Austin were set to make their first visits to Kyiv on Sunday since the conflict began.

A series of European leaders have already traveled to Kyiv to meet Zelensky, but the United States, a leading donor of finance and weaponry to Ukraine, has not sent any top officials so far.

The US State Department declined to comment on the highly sensitive trip by two of US President Joe Biden's top cabinet members.

Their visit comes as the ongoing fighting shows no sign of easing.

According to Kyiv, Russia resumed its attacks on the last Ukrainian defenders holed up in a giant steelworks in Mariupol, days after Moscow declared victory in the southern city and said its forces did not need to take the plant.

Zelensky said the country's army was not ready to try to break through the siege of the port city.

Moscow has so far made no comments on whether it has resumed such attacks.

Russia has been trying to take Mariupol for nearly two months, a city whose capture would establish a land corridor to the Crimean Peninsula.

In other military developments, Russian forces have destroyed a logistics terminal at a military airfield near the city of Odessa, where foreign weapons were stored, said the Russian Defense Ministry.

"This afternoon high-precision, long-range air-based missiles fired by the Russian Aerospace Forces disabled a logistics terminal at a military airfield near Odessa, where a large batch of foreign weapons received from the US and European countries were stored," said Russian Defense Ministry spokesman Igor Konashenkov on Saturday.

Fate of peace talks

Speaking of the fate of peace talks, Zelensky said on Saturday that he supports a diplomatic solution to the conflict, the Interfax-Ukraine news agency reported.

"There is a diplomatic path, there is a military one," Zelensky told a news conference in Kyiv, adding that he wants to stop the conflict and put an end to it.

At the same time, he stressed that Kyiv would withdraw from peace negotiations with Moscow if Russian forces kill Ukrainians trapped in Mariupol or hold pseudo-referendums in the areas they captured in Ukraine.

United Nations Secretary-General Antonio Guterres has planned for meetings with Russian President Vladimir Putin and will then go to Ukraine for talks with Zelensky, the UN said.

Guterres will visit the Turkish capital on Monday, where he will be received by Turkey's President Tayyip Erdogan, the UN said. The UN aid chief, Martin Griffiths, said that Turkey was a valuable host for humanitarian talks between Ukraine and Russia.

Turkey is ready to give all possible assistance during the negotiation process, Erdogan told Zelensky during a telephone call, the Turkish presidency said on Sunday.

Eri Kaneko, Guterres' associate spokeswoman, said that Guterres would head to Moscow on Tuesday and meet Putin, hoping to discuss what can be done to bring peace to Ukraine.

Agencies via Xinhua