Moscow, Jan 7 (EFE).- Russia’s President Vladimir Putin attended the Orthodox Christmas mass Monday night in a Moscow church with veterans of the war in Ukraine.
Putin, a self-confessed believer who was secretly baptized during the time of the Soviet Union, took advantage of Christmas to attend the religious service in a church inaugurated in 1995 on the occasion of the 50th anniversary of the victory over Nazi .
In addition to attending the homily, he also placed candles and prayed with attendees before moving on to the Cathedral of Christ the Savior, where Patriarch Kirill of Moscow officiated Christmas mass for the entire nation.
Putin asked to engrave his initials on the chains of some of the crosses that Kirill blessed and that will be sent to the soldiers fighting on the front line in Ukraine.
The Russian leader, who also asked the patriarch to bless several icons, stressed that this initiative is a show of for the military who are participating in his bloody conflict that will mark three years in February.
In his Christmas message, Putin defended family values and the unifying role of the Church, which has ed the Russian military campaign in Ukraine from the beginning, in which Kirill promised that those who fell in combat would see their sins forgiven.
According to independent sources, the Russian army has suffered more than 80,000 deaths and hundreds of thousands of casualties since February 2022.
Christmas is celebrated two weeks later in this nation than in most Christian countries because the Russian Church continues to follow the Julian calendar. EFE
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