The Russian armed forces carried out dozens of attacks on positions of the Ukrainian defenders in eastern Ukraine, according to a report by the general staff in Kiev on Sunday.
In the process, the Russian units suffered heavy losses, the Ukrainian army command announced in its daily situation report, though it did not provide further details. It was not possible to verify the information.
A total of 45 Russian attacks were repelled around Bakhmut and Maryinka, according to the army. They said the front line was unchanged.
"The enemy is suffering significant losses, but is sticking to its plans to occupy Ukrainian territory," the report said.
Fighting continued in other parts of Ukraine despite the Orthodox Easter holiday, with Russian shelling killing two teenagers in the southern region of Mykolayiv during the night, military Governor Vitalii Kim said earlier in the day.
In the Zaporizhzhya region, the head of the military administration, Yuri Malashko, also reported a "massive attack" by the Russian side, including on a church which was damaged, so the service had to be cancelled. "Nothing is sacred, even on the night of Christ's resurrection," Malashko wrote.
The full extent of Ukraine's losses has not been revealed but, according to Ukrainian Defence Minister Oleksii Reznikov, the number of casualties since Moscow's invasion is lower than the more than 50,000 who perished in the recent Turkish earthquake.
"I cannot tell you an exact figure, but I can assure you that it is lower than the number of dead in the earthquake in Turkey," he said in an interview with the Spanish newspaper La Razón published on Sunday.
According to Turkish figures, more than 50,000 people died in the February 6 earthquake in the south-east of the country. So far, Ukraine has not given any information on the number of its wounded and killed.
In the interview conducted in Madrid on Wednesday during an official visit, the defence minister also spoke positively about Germany, after Berlin was widely criticized for being slow to provide aid.
Asked if he was satisfied with Germany, Resnikov replied, "To be honest, yes. It was not easy to persuade them to be more courageous, but we did it." The motives for Germany's initial hesitancy were understandable, he said.
After the Nuremberg trials [against leading representatives of the Nazi regime], Germany had become a pacifist country, he said. Germans had changed.
"This could also happen in Russia if there is a Nuremberg II there and the war criminals are put on trial," Resnikov said.
Sunday also saw discussion of what appeared to be a call by the Wagner mercenary chief to end Russia's "special military operation."
Many Ukrainian media outlets picked up on the text by Wagner chief Yevgeny Prigozhin, which reads: "For state power and for society today it is necessary to put a thick fullstop behind the special military operation."
Even after more than a year of war, Russia still refers to its invasion of Ukraine as a "special military operation."
Prigozhin, whose blog post was published on Friday but has only now come to light, added: "The ideal variant would be to announce the end of the special military operation and declare that Russia has achieved all of its planned goals - and in some respects we really have achieved them."
Russia launched a full-scale invasion of Ukraine in February last year but was driven back from Kiev, the capital, and other cities. They occupy large areas in the east and south having already annexed Crimea in 2014.
A land bridge through Ukrainian territory now connects the Crimean peninsula with Russia.
"For Russia, there is always a risk that the situation on the front can deteriorate after the start of the counteroffensive," added Prigozhin, 61, whose mercenaries are currently fighting mainly for the eastern Ukrainian city of Bakhmut.
Experts expect a Ukrainian offensive in the coming weeks after a flow of Western weapons, and Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky was in a confident mood on Sunday.
"The war could not erase us, our values, our traditions and our holidays," he said in a video.
"Today we celebrate the resurrection of Christ. The main symbol is victory: the victory of good, the victory of truth, the victory of life. We celebrate Easter with an unshakeable faith in the irreversibility of these victories."
Zelensky said that a year ago, just after Russia's invasion began, prayers were being said for Ukraine to survive at all.
"Today we pray that Ukraine wins," he added. "We have already come a long way. Perhaps the most difficult mountain is still ahead of us. We will overcome it. And together we will meet our dawn."
In his own message, Russian President Vladimir Putin lauded the Orthodox Church on the second Easter since his invasion of Ukraine.
He attended a service early Sunday in Moscow's Cathedral of Christ the Saviour together with Moscow Mayor Sergei Sobyanin and the head of the Russian Orthodox Church, Patriarch Kirill. Videos showed Putin and Sobyanin standing side by side with candles in their hands. Kirill also presented Putin with a decorated Easter egg.
Putin praised the Russian Orthodox Church for its "active commitment to mercy and charity in the face of serious challenges" - seen as a nod to the war in Ukraine and Western sanctions on Russia.
