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(ANSA-AFP) - MOSCOW, 07 GEN - Russian President Vladimir
Putin stood alone at a midnight service at a Kremlin church as
he marked Orthodox Christmas darkened by Moscow's assault on
Ukraine. Putin attended the service at the Cathedral of the
Annunciation, originally designed as a church for the Russian
tsars. He stood alone as Orthodox priests in golden robes
conducted a ceremony holding long candles, pictures released by
the Kremlin showed. In previous years Putin usually attended
Orthodox Christmas services in Russian provinces or just outside
Moscow. The Russian Orthodox Church observes Christmas on
January 7. In a message released by the Kremlin on Saturday,
Putin congratulated Orthodox Christians, saying the holiday
inspired "good deeds and aspirations." He also praised the
Orthodox Church, whose influential head Patriarch Kirill has
fully backed Putin's offensive in Ukraine. Church organisations
are "supporting our soldiers taking part in a special military
operation," Putin said, using the official Kremlin term for the
offensive in Ukraine. "Such great, multifaceted, truly ascetic
work deserves the most sincere respect," he added. Patriarch
Kirill has called on believers to support pro-Russian "brothers"
during Moscow's offensive in eastern Ukraine. In a sermon last
year, he said that dying in Ukraine "washes away all sins".
(ANSA-AFP).
(ANSA-AFP).
