Posted on 12/25/2022 8:17:30 AM PST by Timber Rattler
Pope Francis prayed for peace as St. Michael’s Cathedral in Kyiv prepared for what believers hope will be a peaceful Christmas. It’s here where we meet Lesya and Valeriy.
They are two volunteers in Ukraine’s civil defense forces areas of these are who married in March at a military-style ceremony after Russia invaded Ukraine.
Video of their wedding was seen worldwide. Nine months later, Lesya has left the army, but Valeriy continues to serve. But Lesya is happy they are briefly reunited to celebrate Christmas. “We share this light like we share love and kindness and peace,” she said as the faithful gathered for a candlelight ceremony. “So the idea is to share these good feelings, which are especially important during the war. To remind them about the deep sense of Christmas.”
It provides a brief escape from the horrors of Europe’s most significant armed conflict since World War Two, which killed at least tens of thousands of people, with many more injured and millions forced to flee their homes.
And there were no signs of a Christmas truce ten months after Russia’s invasion began.
(Excerpt) Read more at vaticannews.va ...
Nice to see you here, Timber, you missed all the fun this morning!
No I didn’t.
Are the Ukrainians worshiping their lord and savior, Stepan Bandera today?
I thought most Ukrainians were muslim.
I don’t know. Still learning more about a country I never even thought about till last February.
Wow, now the Vatican News Service is in on the propaganda placement.
I thought that Christmas was January 7 in Ukraine?
Ukrainians are determinedly Christian. They adopted their faith during the reign of Prince Vladimir who was baptized by priests from Byzantium. His son, Prince Yaroslav the wise using Byzantine craftsmen built the church of St. Sophia in Kiev in 1199. The church is still there and well taken care of by the faithful.
I have heard of the Church of Sophia, during an Art History course.
Basically, no muslims in Ukraine.
Muslims make up only approximately 0.9% of the Ukrainian population
Russian Orthodox Christians observe Christmas on January 7, but it seems the Ukrainian Orthodox church is in the process of transitioning to December 25.
Most Ukrainians are members of branches of Eastern Orthodox Christianity.
There are more Muslims in the United States than in Ukraine.
I thought their Christmas is in two weeks.
I thought that Christmas was January 7 in Ukraine?
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Yes has been for centuries. When I worked in Moscow the Orthodox Church celebration was/ is Jan 7th. The move by the Ukies to the 25th of December began with their persecution of Russian citizens in the East, and now that Zelensky has outlawed the Russian Orthodox Church from Ukraine, we will see most likely the 25th in western Ukraine, and 7 Jan in eastern Ukraine.
https://libertarianinstitute.org/news/zelensky-to-ban-russian-orthodox-church-in-ukraine/
They’re worshipping all the dollah bills they got to grift from US tax payers - say maybe Ukranes can send some back my way. Half a bill will do me just fine for Christmas.
Ukrainians are repelled by anything in common with the russians.
Some Ukrainians celebrate Christmas on Dec. 25 to part ways with Russia. Here’s why
Ukrainians usually celebrate Christmas on Jan. 7, as do the Russians. But not this year, or at least not all of them. Some Orthodox Ukrainians have decided to observe Christmas on Dec. 25, like many Christians around the world. Yes, this has to do with the war, and yes, they have the blessing of their local church.
The idea of commemorating the birth of Jesus in December was considered radical in Ukraine until recently, but Russia’s invasion changed many hearts and minds.
In October, the leadership of the Orthodox Church of Ukraine, which is not aligned with the Russian church and one of two branches of Orthodox Christianity in the country, agreed to allow faithful to celebrate on Dec. 25.
https://globalnews.ca/news/9372921/ukrainian-christmas-russia-dec-25/
“Zelensky has outlawed the Russian Orthodox Church from Ukraine”
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The dirty little dictator has banned all dissent and opposition in Ukraine, so it’s no surprise that in a desperate vain attempt to avoid a Mussolini gas-station type fate he’s taking American’s dollars to attack Christians.
The church in Kiev is a copy of that in Constantinople. Many Greek Orthodox Churches in the U.S. are configured the same way.
Scott Ritter: Well first let's understand that the battle for Bahkmut has been going on for many, many months now. Bahkmut is the "Gordian knot" of the Ukrainian defensive belt that exists in Donestk. A defensive belt that has been constructed on a continuous basis since 2014. It is one of the most extensive, fortified defense systems in modern history. It is manned with troops. It has the support of heavy equipment, artillery, etc. And the Russians have been in the business of grinding it down for many weeks and what we see right now is basically we are seeing the culmination of all of the Russian effort.
I always laugh when people say, "How could Ukraine be outgunned." I don't know maybe because they only have x number of artillery pieces and the Russians have x times 10. I know that when I have more artillery pieces than you I am going to win that fight generally speaking especially in positional warfare where you have made is pretty easy for me by sitting in your positions that I can identify using my intelligence resources and pound you into submission.
You know there are two aspects to this fight. One is that the Russians are more than happy to let the Ukrainians sit in place and suffer casualties. Often times the Ukrainian battalion will rotate into the front lines and days later will rotate out suffering 60% casualties without ever having seen a Russian. They'll just show up and they die. Then they leave and another battalion comes in . And that's the thing. The Ukrainians are rotating battalions in. Every once in a while The Ukrainians will fail to rotate in on time; leave some chink in their armor and if that time is right the Russians will carry out an assault on that position. This is extraordinarily bloody combat, close quarters combat of the most intimate nature. They will face-to-face in trench; hand grenades, knives, bayonets, rifle stocks, bullets at close range and the Russians tend to prevail, seize the position and then they wait and start the process of grinding down the next position.
The goal of the Russians, of course, is to kill as many Ukrainians as possible and fortunately for Russia Ukraine is giving them plenty of opportunities to do just this by their tactics. One has to wonder at what point in time Ukrainians will recognize that the price of holding on to Bahkmut is too high. That Ukraine would be better off preserving these forces; some of who are well trained and using them as a mobile defense capable at least of lowering the casualty ratio. Right now Russia is enjoying an 8 to 1; 10 to 1 ratio primarily because it can exploit its artillery advantage. Even when Ukraine has modern Western artillery such as the M777 from the United States...the HIMARS, other artillery systems from other NATO countries they don't exist in sufficient quantities to level the battle field."
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