Lone Putin observes Christmas at Kremlin church
MOSCOW: Russian President Vladimir Putin stood alone at a midnight service in a Kremlin church as he marked an Orthodox Christmas darkened by Moscow’s attack on Ukraine. Putin attended a service at the Cathedral of the Annunciation, originally designed as a church for Russian tsars.
He stood alone as gold-robed Orthodox priests led the ceremony with long candles, images released by the Kremlin showed. In years past, Putin usually attended Orthodox Christmas services in Russia’s provinces or just outside Moscow. The Russian Orthodox Church celebrates Christmas on January 7. In a message issued by the Kremlin on Saturday, Putin congratulated Orthodox Christians and said the holiday inspired “good deeds and aspirations.”
He also praised the Orthodox Church, whose influential head Patriarch Kirill fully supported Putin’s offensive in Ukraine. Church organizations “support our soldiers who are participating in a special military operation,” Putin said, using the Kremlin’s official term for the offensive in Ukraine.
“Such a large, multifaceted, truly ascetic work deserves the most sincere respect,” he added. Patriarch Kirill called on the faithful to support pro-Russian “brothers” during Moscow’s offensive in eastern Ukraine. In a sermon last year, he said that death in Ukraine “washes away all sins.” On February 24 last year, Putin sent troops to Ukraine, saying the Orthodox Christian country needed to be “demilitarized.”
In recent months, his army has suffered a series of military setbacks in the Western-backed country. Putin unilaterally ordered his forces to suspend attacks for 36 hours due to the Orthodox Christmas. But AFP journalists heard both incoming and outgoing shelling in the eastern Ukrainian town of Bakhmut on the frontline after the Russian ceasefire was set to begin.
