Russian President Vladimir Putin stood alone at a midnight service in a Kremlin church as he celebrated the Orthodox Christmas eclipsed by Moscow’s attack on Ukraine.
Putin attended the service at the Annunciation Cathedral, originally designed as a church for the Russian tsars.
He stood alone as Orthodox priests in gold robes performed a ceremony with long candles, images released by the Kremlin showed.
In recent years, Putin has typically attended Orthodox Christmas services in Russian provinces or just outside Moscow.
The Russian Orthodox Church celebrates Christmas on January 7th.
In a message released by the Kremlin on Saturday, Putin congratulated Orthodox Christians and said the holiday had inspired “good deeds and aspirations”.
He also praised the Orthodox Church, whose influential leader, Patriarch Kirill, fully supported Putin’s offensive in Ukraine.
Church organizations “support our soldiers who are taking part in a special military operation,” Putin said, using the official Kremlin term for the offensive in Ukraine.
“Such a magnificent, multi-faceted, truly ascetic work deserves the sincerest respect,” he added.
Patriarch Kirill has called on the faithful to support pro-Russian “brothers” during Moscow’s offensive in eastern Ukraine.
In a sermon last year, he said that dying in Ukraine “washes away all sins.”
On February 24 last year, Putin sent troops into Ukraine, saying the Orthodox Christian country needed to be “demilitarized.”
In recent months, his army on the ground in the Western-backed country has suffered a series of military setbacks.
Putin has unilaterally ordered his forces to halt attacks for 36 hours for the Orthodox Christmas celebration.
But AFP journalists heard both outgoing and incoming shells in the frontline town of Bakhmut in eastern Ukraine after the Russian ceasefire was supposed to start.