Kharkiv Governor Oleg Sinekhobov reportedly said on the Telegraph instant messaging app that a 50-year-old man had died as a result of Russian shelling. The news came minutes after midnight Moscow time.
Russian President Vladimir Putin on June 6 ordered a 36-hour cease-fire along the line of contact to mark Russian and Ukrainian Orthodox Christmas Day on the 7th, the report said. Ukraine has rejected the cease-fire and shelling is still occurring on the front line.
Putin attends Christmas servicePhoto credit: Kremlin website
The report mentioned that most Ukrainian Orthodox Christians traditionally celebrate Christmas on Jan. 7, as do Russian Orthodox Christians. But in 2022, Ukraine's largest Orthodox Church also allows for a Dec. 25 celebration. Nonetheless, many chose to flock to churches to celebrate on Jan. 7 this year.
The report said the Kremlin said Moscow would continue to press ahead with a special military operation in Ukraine. Putin's first deputy chief of staff, Sergei Kiriyenko, said, "The tasks set by the president for the special military operation remain to be accomplished. And it will certainly be victorious."
Extended reading
Russian-Ukrainian Orthodox Christmas ceasefire, can't do it! Putin, difficult
For Putin, the next step, will face a number of difficult problems
Wen|Maritime Guest
Russian Orthodox Patriarch Kirill on January 5 called for a Russian-Ukrainian cease-fire during the Orthodox Christmas season.
Russian Orthodox Patriarch Kirill
Russian President Vladimir Putin announced a cease-fire on the Russian-Ukrainian Line of Contact (LOC) of the "Special Military Operation" from 12:00 p.m. on January 6 to 24:00 p.m. on January 7, calling on the Ukrainian side to do the same.
But Ukrainian President Leonid Zelensky rejected the call and said he was skeptical of the Russians' motives.
U.S. President Joe Biden, for his part, spoke across the Atlantic - "Putin's proposal for a 36-hour cease-fire is an attempt to find breathing room."
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In Uncle Hai's view, despite the fact that Russia and Ukraine are both countries y influenced by Orthodoxy, and even for a long time in the past, Moscow and the All-Russian Patriarch, when it came to Orthodox affairs, ran the Ukrainian parishes. In other words, Kirill called for a ceasefire, Putin complied, and so should Zelensky. But since December 15, 2018, when the Ukrainian Patriarchate announced the formation of an "autonomous Ukrainian Orthodox Church" and elected Epiphanius as Metropolitan of Kyiv, it means that the Ukrainian Patriarchate does not want to be under Kirill's leadership anymore.
On December 15, 2018, the Ukrainian Orthodox Church elected Epiphanius as Metropolitan of Kiev, with then-Ukrainian President Petro Poroshenko present as an observer and making a statement File photo
This move by the Ukrainian Orthodox Church has since also been recognized by a pardon from the Ecumenical Patriarchate of Constantinople, which has formally granted the "autonomous Ukrainian Orthodox Church".
But even so, in the opinion of the Ecumenical Patriarch of Constantinople, the 12,000 churches of the Ukrainian Orthodox Church of the Moscow Patriarchate are still under the authority of the Moscow Patriarchate.
But after Kirill called for a cease-fire on Jan. 5, the Kyiv Patriarchate responded by immediately ceasing to recognize the jurisdiction of Moscow and All-Russian Patriarch Kirill over all Ukrainian churches. In other words, the Ukrainian Orthodox Church will act completely independently of Moscow.
But, looking back at the Patriarch of Constantinople in Istanbul, Turkey, as a religious leader, it actually has essentially little jurisdiction over the Orthodox Church in Moscow. It can't even keep St. Sophia Cathedral itself.
Back to Moscow's religious relations with Kiev - after the collapse of the Soviet Union, Kiev still recognized Moscow. Actually, it also has to do with the fact that Russia, Ukraine and Belarus are all East Slavic countries. At that time, these three countries were also the most closely related within the CIS. This also resulted in Russia's promise at the time that Crimea would continue to be held by Ukraine, and Ukraine's promise to lease the Crimean military port to Russia. It's just a matter of brothers having each other in their midst.
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But now, as Kirill announces a cease-fire, the Church in Kiev is not buying his argument. As if that weren't enough, Zelensky said in a video message on social media on Jan. 5 that he didn't see the need for a cease-fire during the traditional holiday, saying the Russians "want to use Christmas as a cover" to prevent the U.S. Army from launching a counteroffensive and to take advantage of the opportunity to deliver equipment and ammunition.
On Jan. 5, local time, Zelensky issued a Christmas message in a file photo
Podoljak, an adviser to the U.S. president's office, also posted on social media that a "temporary truce" would be possible only if the Russians left the territory of the U.S.
The U.S. government has been working on the issue of a temporary truce since the beginning of the holiday.
Judging from the speeches made by key figures in the Kiev authorities, Uncle Hai has the feeling that the Ukrainian side still considers itself y influenced by Orthodox Christianity. At least it was a blessed speech on the eve of Orthodox Christmas. But on the other hand, they no longer recognize Russia, including the leadership of the Russian Church.
So why would Moscow and the All-Russian Orthodox Patriarch still want a cease-fire and Putin still do as he is told?
In Uncle Hai's view, there are three implications -
1. A display of jurisdiction in the religious sphere. Despite the fact that the Ukrainian side did not accept the leadership of Moscow and the All-Russian Patriarchate from the beginning of 2018, and the Patriarch of Constantinople essentially endorsed this "non-acceptance" at the beginning of 2019, there is no perception on the part of Moscow and the All-Russian Patriarchate that they no longer consider themselves to be the "leaders" of the Orthodox Church in Ukraine. "leader". Kirill believes that he can still give orders to the Ukrainian Church, and on January 6, in his Orthodox Christmas Eve sermon, Kirill spoke out against the schism of the Ukrainian Orthodox Church and prayed for the believers who had been thrown out of the Kyiv Cave Monastery. And the fact is that the Patriarch of Constantinople himself has no substantial hold on Moscow. In Ukrainian terms, not only in eastern Ukraine, but all of Ukraine, it is not excluded that some churchmen think it is time to take orders from Moscow and the All-Russian Patriarch, which is one of the reasons why, according to Kirill, some people were thrown out of the Kiev Cave Monastery and prayed for it.
File photo of Russia's First Deputy Permanent Representative to the United Nations, Dmitry Polyanskiy
2. Occupy the moral high ground. After Russia announced the ceasefire, at least the United Nations immediately recognized it. In Uncle Hai's opinion, the UN is bound to recognize and welcome the ceasefire, and there is simply no possibility of any other choice. Does the UN still want no ceasefire and continued fighting? It's impossible! In response to the Ukrainian side's unwillingness to cease fire, Russia's First Deputy Permanent Representative to the UN, Polyanskiy, was the first to tweet, "This is yet another reminder of who we are fighting with in Ukraine - brutal nationalist criminals who are willing to sacrifice their own country and their own people for the sake of the West's geopolitical games , they have no respect for what is sacred." In this way, the Russian side wants to define the Kiev authorities as anti-moral.
3. Stirring up national public anger on the Russian side, including pro-Russians in Donbass. Russia has a ceasefire during Orthodox Christmas, and Ukraine dares not to? So is all of Russia going to be on the same page against Ukraine? For the Russian authorities, who have just announced a new round of mobilization, such "public anger" is what they need.
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Russia's war is indeed a sad one. For example, on New Year's Eve, 2022-2023, a new and large-looking building in Makievka, Donetsk, a temporary Russian military compound, was destroyed by six rounds of Ukrainian rocket fire from a Hymas rocket launcher. The Ukrainian army claimed to have killed more than 400 people inside the building. Russia initially reported 63 dead, but later said the number had risen to 89, including the deputy head of the regiment, Lt. Col. Batyulin.
RIA Novosti initially reported "63 dead"
Why was the Russian military compound attacked by the Ukrainian "Haymakers" at night? Judging from the initial Russian investigation, the Russians are simply making a super low-level mistake. It's not enough to send new recruits to the front after the mobilization order is issued, but these new recruits were carrying ordinary cell phones and gathered in this building, which is an obvious target, to have a big welcome party.
Uncle Hai is going to say, if this is not sending yourself to the head, not looking for death, what is it?
The ancient art of war also emphasizes the importance of advancing at a fast pace. In contemporary warfare, there is a disregard for radio silence, or the regulations governing mobile communications equipment, so how can we fight?
The next thing the Russians have to deal with is that the Ukrainian army has acquired a lot of Western-made anti-tank weapons. The U.S. has even begun to provide "Bradley" infantry fighting vehicles, "Humvee" military vehicles, mine-resistant anti-ambush vehicles, as well as a large number of missiles and ammunition. Germany sent "Weasel" infantry fighting vehicles and American-made "Patriot" missiles.
On January 6, a nursing home in Kherson oblast was hit by Ukrainian artillery fire Photo: Sputnik
It is fair to say that the Russians are not facing the same weak Ukrainian forces as they were a year ago. After all, Ukraine is also considered to have had a high degree of industrialization of the country, the overall education of young people is not low, once armed with systematic high-intensity training, its combat effectiveness is quite fast. And the Ukrainian army after all in the local combat. The Russian army is currently a large number of recruits from the Far East and other border areas, whether or not ethnic Russian, fluent in Russian, at least the degree of education is not as high as the city soldiers. For Putin, the next step, will face a lot of difficult