INSUBCONTINENT EXCLUSIVE:
Russian President Vladimir Putin stood alone at a midnight service at a Kremlin church as he marked Orthodox Christmas darkened by Moscows
assault on Ukraine.Putin attended the service at the Cathedral of the Annunciation, initially developed as a church for the Russian tsars.He
stood alone as Orthodox priests in golden bathrobes carried out an event holding long candle lights, pictures released by the Kremlin
showed.In previous years Putin generally participated in Orthodox Christmas services in Russian provinces or simply outside Moscow.The
Russian Orthodox Church observes Christmas on January 7
In a message launched by the Kremlin on Saturday, Putin congratulated Orthodox Christians, stating the holiday motivated kind deeds and
He likewise applauded the Orthodox Church, whose influential head Patriarch Kirill has completely backed Putins offensive in Ukraine.Church
organisations are supporting our soldiers taking part in a special military operation, Putin stated, using the main Kremlin term for the
Such excellent, complex, genuinely ascetic work deserves the most genuine respect, he added.Patriarch Kirill has called on believers to
support pro-Russian brothers throughout Moscows offensive in eastern Ukraine.In a preaching last year, he said that dying in Ukraine gets
On February 24 last year, Putin sent out troops to Ukraine, saying the fellow Orthodox Christian nation needed to be demilitarized
In current months, his army has suffered a series of military obstacles on the ground in the Western-backed country.Putin has unilaterally
bought his forces to pause attacks for 36 hours for the Orthodox Christmas.But AFP reporters heard both outbound and incoming shelling in
the frontline city of Bakhmut in eastern Ukraine after the time when the Russian ceasefire was expected to have actually started.
