Zelenskyy condemns Russia’s rejection of Easter truce, says it shows how Putin treats Christianity

Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy condemned Russian President Vladimir Putin, suggesting that the Russian chief has little regard for Christianity as a result of he rejected an Easter truce.

“Sadly, Russia rejected the proposal to ascertain an Easter truce,” Zelenskyy mentioned in a video Thursday. (Whereas Western Christians celebrated Easter final Sunday, Japanese Christians have fun it this upcoming Sunday, April 24.)

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“This reveals very effectively how the leaders of this state really deal with the Christian religion, one of the joyful and necessary holidays,” the Ukrainian president declared. “However we maintain our hope. Hope for peace, hope that life will overcome demise.” Easter celebrates the day when Christians imagine Jesus Christ rose from the lifeless, three days after His Crucifixion on Good Friday.

“Tomorrow is Good Friday for Japanese Christians,” Zelenskyy famous. He known as the vacation “essentially the most sorrowful day of the 12 months a day when every little thing you are able to do in life will weigh lower than prayer. Apart from one [thing]… defending the Homeland, defending brothers-in-arms in battle.”

Earlier this week, Russia rejected a United Nations proposal for a cease-fire throughout Holy Week, the week main as much as Easter. 

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Civilians, together with youngsters, stay trapped within the japanese area of Donbas, the place Russian forces started a new fierce offensive, and within the devastated port metropolis of Mariupol. Guterres mentioned earlier Tuesday that greater than 12 million individuals in Ukraine wanted humanitarian help. He predicted that quantity would rise to fifteen.7 million, about 40% of all Ukrainians remaining within the nation. 

Russian President Vladimir Putin attends a gathering of the Supreme Eurasian Financial Council in Yerevan, Armenia.
(Shutterstock)

Even China, which has not condemned Russia and abstained from votes on resolutions in opposition to the aggressor nation, mentioned it supported a humanitarian cease-fire.

Russia’s rejection got here after the pinnacle of the World Council of Church buildings reached out to Moscow’s Patriarch Kirill, urging him to make use of his non secular authority as the pinnacle of Russia’s Orthodox Church to name for a cease-fire as Orthodox Christians have fun Easter this weekend.

FILE – Russian President Vladimir Putin congratulates Russian Orthodox Church Patriarch Kirill on the thirteenth anniversary of his enthronement in Moscow, Russia, Tuesday, Feb. 1, 2022.
(Alexei Nikolsky, Sputnik, Kremlin Pool Picture by way of AP)

“Our humble request to your Holiness on this explicit and not possible scenario is to intervene and ask publicly for a ceasefire for a minimum of just a few hours throughout the Resurrection service,” Rev. Ioan Sauca, a Romanian Orthodox priest and appearing common secretary of the World Council of Church buildings, wrote in a letter revealed Tuesday.

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Sauca additionally famous that the combating in World Conflict I “stopped for a second in order that the troopers might share with each other the Resurrection greeting.”

Most Russians and Ukrainians determine as Japanese Orthodox, as does Putin. Zelenskyy, nevertheless, is Jewish.

FILE – Russian Orthodox Patriarch Kirill delivers the Christmas Liturgy within the Christ the Saviour Cathedral in Moscow, Russia, Thursday, Jan. 6, 2022. (AP Picture/Alexander Zemlianichenko)
(AP Picture/Alexander Zemlianichenko)

The Kyiv-based Orthodox Church of Ukraine (OCU) broke away from the Ukrainian Orthodox Church of the Moscow Patriarchate (UOC-MP) earlier than the Russian invasion, however a whole bunch of Orthodox church buildings have reportedly switched their affiliation from Moscow to Kyiv because the begin of the struggle. Whereas the OCU began in 1995, it gained official recognition at an Oct. 2018 synod in Constantinople. The Metropolitan Epiphanius I used to be elected in Dec. 2018.

A big majority of Ukraine’s inhabitants identifies as Japanese Orthodox Christian, whereas a major minority of Ukrainian Catholics worship with a Byzantine liturgy much like the Orthodox however are loyal to the pope, surveys present. 

A 2018 survey discovered that about 67.3% of Ukraine’s inhabitants identifies as one or one other strand of Orthodox Christianity, with 28.7% a part of the Kyiv-based OCU, 23.4% merely “Orthodox,” and 12.8% UOC-MP. One other 7.7% of the inhabitants identifies as broadly Christian, whereas Ukrainian Byzantine Ceremony Catholics make up 9.4%, Protestants make up 2.2%, Latin Ceremony Catholics make up 0.8%, Muslims make up 2.5%, and Judaism makes up 0.4%. One other 11% declared themselves non-religious or unaffiliated.