Pope Leo XIV, carrying a tall, lit candle through a darkened and silent St. Peter’s Basilica, ushered in Christianity’s most joyous celebration with his first Easter vigil service as pontiff Saturday night, urging that Easter would bring harmony and peace to a world torn by wars.

Easter for Christians commemorates Christ’s triumph over death with his resurrection following his crucifixion.

Lighting the candle before he entered the basilica, the pope intoned: “The light of Christ who rises in glory.”

Candle bearers stopped to light candles of the congregants as they walked down the central aisle, spreading flickers of light through the dark basilica before the lights went up as the pope arrived at the baroque main altar, followed by cardinals dressed in white.

In his homily, Leo called sin “a heavy barrier that closes us off and separates us from God, seeking to kill his words of hope within us,’’ and likened it to the stone that had covered Jesus’ tomb — but which was found overturned, revealing Jesus’ resurrection.

Leo said that there are stones representing sins to be overturned today, some “so heavy and so closely guarded that they seem to be immovable.”

“Some weigh heavily on the human heart, such as mistrust, fear, selfishness and resentment; others stemming from these inner struggles, sever the bonds between us through war, injustice and the isolation of peoples and nations.

“Let us not allow ourselves to be paralyzed by them!” the pope said, calling on the faithful to make a commitment “so that the Easter gifts of harmony and peace may grow and flourish everywhere and always throughout the world.’’

With the U.S.-Israeli war on Iran in its second month and Russia’s ongoing campaign in Ukraine, Leo has repeatedly called for a halt in hostilities.

On Palm Sunday, he said that God doesn’t listen to the prayers of those who make war or cite God to justify their violence,

As is tradition, Leo baptized 10 adults from all over the world during the Mass.

During Leo’s first Holy Week, which is notoriously demanding, the pontiff carried the cross for the entire 14 stations during the Way of the Cross on Good Friday, the first time a pope has done so for decades.

On Holy Thursday, he washed the feet of 12 priests in the traditional Holy Thursday ritual, restoring a tradition his predecessor Pope Francis had broken by including laypeople and non-Christians.

On Sunday morning, Leo will celebrate an open-air Mass in St. Peter’s Square before delivering his Easter message and offer the traditional “Urbi et Orbi” message “to the city (of Rome) and the world,” which acts as a summary of the world’s woes.

When Russian tanks rolled into Ukraine four years ago, there was never much doubt that Roman Ratushnyi would take up arms. The 24-year-old was a seasoned independence activist, having been a teenage leader of the street protests that toppled Kyiv’s pro-Kremlin government in 2014.

When he died just three months into his military service, a street in Kyiv was named after him, and today his grave is a place of pilgrimage for young Ukrainians. The pilgrims also learn, though, that war is irredeemably cruel — as proved by the extra headstone that now lies next to his own. It marks the grave of his brother, Vasyl, who died in combat a year ago this Friday, leaving his parents mourning the loss of both sons.

“Even now, a year later, I’m not sure I can quite accept that it’s happened,” says the brothers’ father, Taras, 52, himself now a captain in an artillery brigade. “We in Ukraine are living through the most horrific experience in Europe since World War II.”

It is men like Taras whom Vladimir Putin would have hoped to have broken by now, wearing their morale down to the point where they no longer wish to fight. Yet as the invasion marks its fourth anniversary today, Taras sees light at the end of a very long tunnel. Not because he thinks victory is immediately within grasp or because he has any faith in Donald Trump’s peace talks. Instead, it is because the past year has been Ukraine’s toughest so far — and yet it has pulled through.

Relentless Russia

After all, it was 12 months ago this week that President Volodymyr Zelensky had his infamous Oval Office fallout with Trump, when the US leader warned that he didn’t have “the cards” to win without US support.

Since then, Russia has continued its slow but steady gains on the battlefield, grinding Kyiv down by its simple willingness to sacrifice far more troops. This winter — the coldest in a decade — Putin has also tried to break Ukraine’s civilian morale, bombing power stations to leave cities unheated in minus-13 degrees. This past Sunday, though, Ukrainians finally observed Kolidii, the traditional Slavic festival that marks the end of winter. And even if temperatures are only up to a balmy 33 degrees, there’s a sense of having weathered the storm.

“The Russians left millions of Ukrainians without heating and electricity, but it’s still not enough,” says Taras. “Did they get our missile or drone factories? No. We are still a force to be reckoned with.”

“There is a sense that the Kremlin has failed to seize the advantage,” adds Alina Frolova, deputy chair of the Center for Defense Strategies, a Ukrainian military think tank. “While things aren’t great, we may yet prevail.”

The mood is certainly more upbeat than at the start of winter last November, when Zelensky admitted Ukraine was facing “one of the most difficult moments of our history.”

 His government was engulfed in a corruption scandal over the theft of millions of dollars from the state energy provider, the outfit tasked with keeping the country warm in winter. Russian troops were close to seizing Pokrovsk, a strategically important city in the eastern Donbas region. And in US-instigated peace talks, Trump was pressuring Kyiv to a deal that would hand over yet more of its territory to Putin, despite Zelensky warning that Ukrainians themselves would never accept it.

Drones guard line

So how have things changed? On the front lines, Ukraine has focused on using drones rather than infantry, creating a 12-mile deep defensive “kill zone” that is extremely hard for Russian troops to break through. All Moscow can do now is send in small groups of soldiers on near-suicidal raids, which often progress as little as 15 yards a day.

For every single Ukrainian soldier who dies, between five and 25 times that many Russians perish, a ratio that is gradually sapping Moscow’s manpower advantage. Until now, Moscow has bought in new recruits by offering signup bonuses of up to $50,000 — a life-changing sum for many Russians. But Ukrainian officials say that since December, Russian casualty levels have outstripped recruitment. Sanctions, including those imposed by Trump last year on Russian oil, are also starving Moscow of the cash it needs to pay its troops.

The talks, meanwhile, have largely petered out and while Trump may not be giving Ukraine US weapons anymore, he has not stopped his Europe allies buying them on Ukraine’s behalf.

“These are potentially the best prospects Ukraine has had since the war started,” reckons Glen Grant, a former British diplomat and advisor to Ukraine’s defense ministry. He says if Europe ups its weapons supply and follows America’s lead in cracking down on Russia’s “shadow fleet” of oil-smuggling ships, Ukraine could “catch the moment,” shortening a war that might otherwise drag on till 2030.

Whether Putin wants the conflict to stop is another matter. Peace would bring back hundreds of thousands of battle-hardened, traumatized troops from the front. And if sanctions-battered Russia is no longer a home fit for heroes, then hard questions may be asked about whether it was worth it.

Indeed, as Putin’s “Special Military Operation” becomes the most disastrous five-year plan since the days of the Soviet Union, the real miracle is not that Ukraine is still hanging on, but that he is. Zelensky may not have “the cards” to win, but no longer does Putin — despite having once held all the aces.

Colin Freeman is the author of “The Mad and The Brave: The Untold Story of Ukraine’s Foreign Legion.”

A New Brunswick father is preparing to travel to war-torn to seek answers about his son’s death — one of 27 Canadians the federal government said have died in that country during the war.

Marc Mazerolle will be flying out from his home in Inkerman, N.B., this week and hopes to find his son’s remains to bring back to Canada.

“I don’t blame nobody, you know, it’s just the speed of the system,” he said. “It’s long and it’s frustrating for families because we don’t got much answer.”

His son Patrick, 24, was killed while volunteering to fight for the Ukrainian army last fall.

Mazerolle didn’t even know his son had joined the fight until Patrick was already there.

The family believed Patrick had travelled to the U.K. on vacation. Instead, he had made the trek to Poland and volunteered to fight in the Russian-Ukrainian war.

“Patrick was a good kid, he was a good soul. All his intentions was good. I’m not sure he was ready to really understand what he was getting into,” said Mazerolle.

“He said, ‘I’m going to get out of there a better person, You’ll be so proud of me.’”

Mazerolle said his son was killed in the Russian-occupied Luhansk Oblast area, and he understands it would require a ceasefire in order for it to be remotely possible to repatriate his son’s remains.

His family has worked desperately to get as much information about Patrick’s final days as possible. After speaking out last year and sharing their story, Mazerolle said others on the front lines have come forward with vital news.

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“(We) talked to the last soldier who was with him when he was alive. So now we know that Patrick died on Sept. 1 between 8:00 and 8.15 in the morning. I got a location within 20 metres where his remain is,” he said.

Mazerolle and his wife have submitted DNA and provided DNA from Patrick to Canadian authorities but without a centralized system, the process has been stalled.

While he’s been in contact with Global Affairs Canada and independent agencies that help repatriate soldiers, it’s been a complicated and difficult process, and one the family has had to navigate alone.

“In Canada, we don’t have much support. Like the government is trying but it’s such a slow process,” he said.

“We gave Patrick’s DNA and our DNA within the first week after the incident. I don’t even got confirmation that Patrick’s are in the system in Ukraine yet.”

Global Affairs Canada doesn’t track how many Canadians have gone to Ukraine to fight nor does it keep a registry of Canadians who have been injured or killed.

“Like all Canadian citizens abroad, these individuals are not required to register with the Government of Canada, and there is no legal mechanism to compel them to do so,” a spokesperson told Global News in an email.

“(Global Affairs Canada) is aware of the deaths of 27 Canadian citizens in Ukraine since Feb. 24, 2022. This figure includes all causes of death.”

University of Ottawa researcher Jean-François Ratelle estimates there have been around 130 to 150 Canadian fighters in Ukraine at any given time since the war started in 2022.

Taking into account the number of deaths from Global Affairs Canada, Ratelle said that means the fatality rate for fighters could be as high as 20 per cent.

“(That’s) quite high for a war where the Canadian army and the Canadian government is not directly involved,” said Ratelle.

To honour Canadians killed or wounded, the Ukrainian Canadian Congress has given out 14 Ukrainian Canadian Sacrifice Medals. Patrick Mazerolle is among the latest recipients.

“It is both an honour for our community but also a deeply sombre and moving and sad thing that we do,” said Orest Zakydalsky, senior policy adviser with the organization.

When asked if he had a message for other Canadians who volunteer to fight in Ukraine, Mazerolle said he understands they may want to help but he believes there are other ways to go about it without putting themselves in danger.

He said he’s heard from other Canadians struggling because a loved one volunteered, saying,”They kind of disappeared without telling them exactly where they were going.”

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Although the search for answers has been hard, Mazerolle said he feels compelled to continue and plans to start a non-profit to help other families in the same situation.

“We’re doing that to help out other families, but in the same process (we hope it will) give us a better chance to bring him back home,” he said with emotion.

“It’s sad, but I’ll be proud of that kid for the rest of my days. It takes a lot of courage to go there, believe me.”

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