President Volodymyr Zelenskyy delivered a Christmas Address to Ukrainians and noted that this year, Ukraine celebrates this holiday with European countries and the whole world.
Zelenskyy delivered a Christmas Address to Ukrainians
Today, all Ukrainians are together. We all meet Christmas together. On the same date, as one big family, as one nation, as one united country. And today our common prayer will be stronger than ever. The people's prayer. Today, it will unite millions of voices — more than ever before. And it will resonate today without a time difference of two weeks. Resonate together with Europe and the world, the head of state said.
The President emphasised that due to the criminal war unleashed by Russia, Ukrainians learned about a new dimension of celebrating Christmas in the conditions of full-scale armed aggression.
Christmas with a different mood, context, and flavor. And a family dinner at home is not the same as usual. Because not all of us are at home. And not everyone has a home. And it has become much more important not what dishes are on the table, but what people are at the table. And how precious it is to have them around. How important it is to stay in touch with those who are not around, who are defending Ukraine now, the head of state emphasized.
In Ukraine, the attitude towards the celebration of Christmas has changed
According to him, our gifts, values, and traditions have changed.
How today it's not so much about how we decorate our homes, but rather how we protect them and clean up the mess, sweeping the enemy out of our home. How we rejoice at seeing the first star in the evening sky and not seeing enemy missiles and "Shaheds" in it. How joyously and sonorously sound the hundreds of our carols, and just three words: "Air siren [all] clear", the president emphasized.
He recorded his address in the Kyiv-Pechersk Lavra, which he called a thousand-year-old symbol of Ukrainian history, culture, religion, Orthodoxy, and all of Eastern Christianity, as well as proof of "the strength of our indomitability, resilience, difficult trials and the ability to overcome them."
Christmas Eve is the time of the longest nights of the year. But tomorrow the day starts getting longer, the light starts prevailing. The light is getting stronger. And step by step, day by day, the darkness retreats. And in the end, darkness will lose. Evil will be defeated. Today, this is our common goal, our common dream, and this is what our common prayer is for today. For our freedom. For our victory. For our Ukraine. For the day when we can all come together at home in a peaceful year of peaceful Christmas. And say to each other: "Christ is born!", Zelenskyy noted.
