Ukrainians have taken a long weekend in honor of Orthodox Easter (April 28) and Labor Day (May 1).
They aren’t the only ones. Outgoing Ukrainian President Petro Poroshenko and President-elect Volodymyr Zelenskiy have also taken trips — albeit for very different purposes.
While Poroshenko attended church services and visited Lviv Oblast, the only region where he won a majority of votes in the April 21 presidential runoff, Zelenskiy traveled to Turkey for a comedy festival organized by his production studio.
Easter
This year marked the first Easter celebration of the unified Orthodox Church of Ukraine, which gained independence from Moscow last year under the auspices of President Poroshenko.
The president and First Lady Maryna Poroshenko took part in services with the Orthodox Church of Ukraine and the Ukrainian Greek Catholic Church in Kyiv on April 28, Easter Sunday according to the eastern liturgy.
In his sermon-like written congratulatory message to the nation, Porosheko talked about faith and love as two things necessary to overcome suffering and win the war with Russia.
“‘Let us love one another, for love comes from God. Everyone who loves has been born of God and knows God’ — let this Evangelical verse be our guide,” he said, citing John 4:7.
He called the public to pray for Ukrainian soldiers, for those who lost their loved ones due to the Russian aggression in the Donbas, and for Ukrainian hostages and prisoners of war held in Russia.
“The Resurrection of Christ gives us strength to fight and win even in extremely difficult conditions. It teaches us that eternal life will win even after Golgotha.” he said.
In contrast to Poroshenko’s Bible reference-heavy address, the future President of Ukraine settled on a more neutral message. Zelenskiy, who is of Jewish heritage, appears not to be religious, although he had his youngest son baptized.
In an Instagram post, he wished a happy Easter to “all Ukrainians around the world and Ukrainian citizens in the west, east, south, north, and center.” He separately mentioned Ukrainian soldiers, adding: “We believe that light will defeat the darkness.”
He finished his message with a light-hearted postscript: “Break your diets, eat paska (traditional Easter cake)!!! Together!!!”
Zelenskiy’s Turkish retreat
Zelenskiy could not attend any Easter service. He left for Turkey on April 26 for what he described as his first days off in the four months since he entered his presidential bid and won two rounds of the election.
On Facebook, he wrote that he was taking his two children to a festival. Later, that turned out to be the annual comedy festival Veselo, organized by Zelenskiy’s company, the Kvartal 95 production studio, and the CITA travel agency at various resorts abroad.
Turkish state news agency Anadolu published photos from Zelenskiy’s two-day vacation showing him grilling meat on skewers with the owners of a local restaurant where he dined. According to Anadolu, the president-elect lodged in the five-star Lujo hotel in the Güvercinlik neighborhood of Bodrum, a resort city on the Aegean Sea.
Besides Turkish journalists, Zelenskiy’s holiday drew the Russian media’s attention. Two reporters from Rossiya-1, a Russian state television channel, ambushed the actor-turned-politician and asked him questions about Ukraine-Russia relations, the Minsk ceasefire agreements, and Ukraine’s new language law.
In a video aired on the channel’s 60 Minutes political talk show on April 29, Zelenskiy was seen refusing to talk to the Russian journalists. “The people of Ukraine have elected me. May I talk to the people of Ukraine?” he said.
According to Zelenskiy, the Russian journalists approached him pretending to be vacationers and asked to take a photo with him.
“I don’t start communication with lies,” he said and drove his golf cart away.
Zelenskiy returned to Ukraine on April 29 and met with Metropolitan Epiphanius, the leader of the Orthodox Church of Ukraine, next day.
Poroshenko’s tour of glory
On his first work trip after losing the presidential election, President Poroshenko visited Lviv Oblast, the only region he won, to express his gratitude to supporters.
On April 29, a rainy day, hundreds of citizens gathered near the Taras Shevchenko monument in central Lviv to thank their leader.
“Someone will say that we lost on April 21. We didn’t win. This is true. My position is that we didn’t lose. There are no reasons to fall into despair,” he told a crowds.
“Our major victories are ahead. The main thing we have to do now is to preserve unity and not fall into despair. The main things we have to do now is to protect those accomplishments that we have achieved over five years,” Poroshenko said.
Of the 4.5 million votes received by Poroshenko during the April 21 runoff, over 800,000 came from Lviv Oblast.
In his speech, Poroshenko again urged his supporters to defend the Ukrainian army, the Ukrainian language, and the country’s independent Orthodox church — the three pillars of Ukrainian statehood, according to the president.
He made these three elements central to his highly nationalistic, but unsuccessful presidential campaign. During that campaign, he also stirred up fears that the election of Zelenskiy, a Russian speaker and a comedian without political experience, would benefit Russian President Vladimir Putin and put Ukraine at risk of losing the war and again falling under the Russian influence.
“Today is a Wet Monday” — a holiday celebrated in parts of Eastern Europe — “and the rain did not prevent us from gathering and demonstrating our unity, demonstrating our strength, our determination that we won’t allow Ukraine’s path to be turned back to the Soviet Union or the Russian Empire,” he said.
Earlier, Poroshenko announced he would not leave politics.
