Vladimir Zelensky, photo OP
President Vladimir Zelensky, in his congratulations on the occasion of the Nativity of Christ, noted that this year Ukrainians celebrate this holiday on the same date and together with Europe and the world.
Source : President's Christmas greetings
Direct speech : “Today all Ukrainians are together. We all celebrate Christmas together. On one date, as one big family, as one nation, as one, united country. And today, more than ever, our common prayer will be stronger. People’s prayer. Today it will unite millions of voices – more than ever before. And it will sound today, without a time difference of two weeks. And it will sound together with Europe and the world.”
Details : Zelensky noted that for the second year now, Ukrainians have learned another dimension of this holiday – Christmas in times of full-scale war.
“This is Christmas, which has a different mood, a different context, a different flavor. And the family home dinner is not the same as always. Because not all of us are at home and not all of us have a home. And it has become much more important not what dishes are on the table, and what kind of people are at the table, and how valuable it is when they are nearby. And how important it is for those who are not nearby and defend Ukraine to be in touch,” he said.
The President emphasized that today our gifts, values and traditions have changed.
“How important today is not so much how we decorate our homes, but how we protect our homes and remove garbage from them – we sweep the enemy out of our home. How we rejoice when we notice the first star in the evening sky and do not see enemy missiles in it and “martyrs.” How joyfully and loudly hundreds of our carols sound and only three words: “air raid all clear,” Zelensky added.
He recorded his address at the Kiev Pechersk Lavra, which he called a thousand-year-old symbol of Ukrainian history, culture, religion, Orthodoxy, and all Eastern Christianity, as well as proof of “the strength of our invincibility, perseverance, difficult trials and the ability to overcome them.”
Direct speech : “The time before Christmas is the time of the longest nights of the year. But tomorrow the day begins to grow, the light begins to win. The light becomes stronger. And step by step, day by day, the darkness loses.
And in the end the darkness will lose. Evil will lose. Today is our common goal, our common dream, and this is precisely what our common prayer is for today. For our freedom. For our victory. For our Ukraine. For a day when we can all gather at home for a peaceful year of peaceful Christmas. And let us say to each other: “Christ is born!”