Kyiv, Ukraine
AP
Ukraine’s President Volodymyr Zelenskiy on Friday signed a law moving the official Christmas Day holiday to 25th December from 7th January, the day when the Russian Orthodox Church observes it.
The explanatory note attached to the law said its goal is to “abandon the Russian heritage,” including that of “imposing the celebration of Christmas” on 7th January. It cited Ukrainians’ “relentless, successful struggle for their identity” and “the desire of all Ukrainians to live their lives with their own traditions, holidays,” fueled by Russia’s 17-month-old aggression against the country.
Ukrainians attend a Christmas mass at an Orthodox Church in Bobrytsia, on the outskirts of Kyiv, Ukraine, on 25th December, 2022. Ukraine’s President Volodymyr Zelenskyy on Friday 28th July, 2023 signed a law moving the official Christmas Day holiday to 25th December from 7th January, the day when the Russian Orthodox Church observes it. PICTURE: AP Photo/Felipe Dana/File photo.
Last year, some Ukrainians already observed Christmas on 25th December, in a gesture that represented separation from Russia, its culture and religious traditions.
The law also moves the Day of Ukrainian Statehood to 15th July from 28th July, and the Day of Defenders of Ukraine to 1st October from 14th October.
RUSSIAN MISSILE KILLS TWO IN ZAPORIZHZHIA, UKRAINIAN OFFICIAL SAYS
A Russian missile attack killed two people and blew out apartment windows in the southern Ukrainian city of Zaporizhzhia on Saturday, Anatoliy Kurtiev, secretary of the city council, said.
“An enemy missile hit an open area,” Kurtiev said on Telegram. “Unfortunately a man and a woman died. Another woman was injured.”
Local residents inspect a crater left after a Russian missile strike, amid Russia’s attack on Ukraine, in Zaporizhzhia, Ukraine, on 29th July, 2023. PICTURE: Reuters/Viacheslav Ratynskyi
Rescue crews were seen carrying the victims away in body bags in a wooded area beside a railway line a few hundred metres from a station in the city center. Men in uniforms examined pieces of shrapnel and stood beside a crater in the earth several meters wide.
“The blast wave knocked out windows in high-rise buildings and damaged the building of an educational institution and a supermarket,” Kurtiev said, adding that psychologists and other services were providing support on the ground.
At one apartment building, a 65-year-old woman who gave her name as Olena, sat behind the shattered window of a parking office booth and crossed herself as she described how she survived the impact uninjured.
“I was sitting here like this,” she said, gesticulating as she recalled the moment of the impact. “It was just so unexpected,” she said. “All the glass went flying.”
Kurtiev said the blast wave broke windows in 13 high-rise buildings and an educational institution.
– VLADYSLAV SMILIANETS, Zaporizhzhia, Ukraine/Reuters
The Russian Orthodox Church, which claims sovereignty over Orthodoxy in Ukraine, and some other Eastern Orthodox churches continue to use the ancient Julian calendar. Christmas falls 13 days later on that calendar, or 7th January, than it does on the Gregorian calendar used by most church and secular groups.
The Catholic Church first adopted the modern, more astronomically precise Gregorian calendar in the 16th century. Protestants and some Orthodox churches have since aligned their own calendars for the purpose of calculating Christmas and Easter.
Ukraine’s religious landscape has fractured for years. There are two branches of Orthodox Christianity in the country, one aligned with the Russian church, even as it enjoys broad autonomy, the other completely independent of it. The Orthodox Church of Ukraine, the branch that is separate from the Russian church, announced earlier this year that it was switching to the Revised Julian calendar, which marks Christmas on 25th December.
Its leadership last year allowed believers to celebrate the holiday on 25th December.
Russia’s state news agency RIA Novosti reported on Saturday that the rival Orthodox Church, which is aligned with the Russian Orthodox Church, vowed to continue observing Christmas on 7th January.
Russian President Vladimir Putin told reporters Saturday that the move “is a sign of something that has been happening for centuries” and that “has to do with the relations between the Catholic church and the Orthodox one.”
Zelenskiy on Saturday travelled to the war-torn Donetsk region in eastern Ukraine, which Russia has illegally annexed, but only partially occupies, and met with members of the country’s Special Operation Forces. Zelenskiy noted in an online statement that Saturday marks their official day of recognition and also the anniversary of the deadly attack on the Olenivka prison in the Russian-held part of the region in which dozens of prisoners of war were killed.
Russia and Ukraine accused each other of the attack, with both sides saying that the assault was premeditated in a bid to cover up atrocities. A United Nations fact-finding mission requested by Russia and Ukraine was sent to investigate the killings, but the team was disbanded in January 2023 due to security concerns.
Zelenskiy described the attack as one of Russia’s “most vile and cruel crimes” in a video statement Saturday.
In a separate Telegram statement, he hailed the soldiers in the Donetsk region for “bringing closer the day when all our land and all our people will be free from the occupiers” and underscored the Special Operations Forces’ role in the recent retaking of the village of Staromaiorske in the area.
His visit to the east comes just days after Western and Russian officials said that Kyiv’s forces intensified attacks in the south-east of the country as part of Ukraine’s counteroffensive.
Putin said Saturday that the intensity of Ukrainian atacks along the front line has gone down “compared to two days ago”. He reiterated that Russian forces are successfully repelling all attacks and in some parts of the front line are even mounting successful counteroffensive operations.
