“We will always be by your side,” the Russian president told the relatives of slain soldiers
Russian President Vladimir Putin has celebrated Orthodox Christmas with the wives and children of soldiers who have lost their lives in the Ukraine conflict, according to the Kremlin’s official website.
Putin had a lengthy meeting with the families at his Novo-Ogaryovo state residence outside Moscow on Saturday evening and had dinner with them. Afterwards, they attended the Christmas service at the local church.
Christmas is one of the “warmest” and “most beloved” holidays in Russia, the president told his guests.
On January 7, Russian Orthodox Christians, who constitute the majority of the country’s population, offer greetings to each other as well as representatives of other faiths, and receive greetings from them, he said. “One can safely say that this holiday is characterized by a strongly-pronounced fraternal unity of the peoples of…