Russian President Vladimir Putin attended a Russian Orthodox Church Easter mass on Sunday, which has backed the Kremlin leader’s ‘special military operation’ in Ukraine.
Putin, dressed in a dark blue suit with a white shirt and a dark purple tie, stood to one side in Moscow’s Christ the Saviour Cathedral, holding a lit red candle, according to live footage from the midnight service.
Several times during the ceremony, Russian President Vladimir Putin crossed himself. When Patriarch Kirill said, ‘Christ has risen,’ Putin responded, ‘Truly he has risen,’ along with the rest of the congregation. He didn’t say anything else.
Kirill expressed his wish for a swift resolution to the Ukrainian conflict during an outdoor service in Moscow on Saturday, but did not condemn it. His words endorsing Russia’s participation, which Kyiv and Western nations have condemned as an act of aggression, have fractured the Orthodox Church worldwide.
Russia claims to be conducting a specific military operation in Ukraine to demilitarise and ‘denazify’ the country. That is a bogus pretext, which Ukraine and the West reject.
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