A couple and their 12-year-old son were killed on Jan. 5, after a Russian shell hit a residential building in the city of Beryslav in the southern Kherson Oblast, Kyrylo Tymoshenko, deputy head of the President's Office, reported.
According to Tymoshenko, the family was preparing to celebrate the Orthodox Christmas when the attack occurred, "but a cynical blow by Russians killed them in their own home."
"In the morning, they (Russia) talk about the "Christmas truce," and at noon they kill a whole family," Tymoshenko said.Earlier today, Patriarch Kirill, the head of the Russian Orthodox Church and a supporter of Russia's aggression against Ukraine, urged "all parties involved" to cease fire and establish a "Christmas truce" on Jan. 6-7.
In response, Mykhailo Podoliak, an advisor to the head of the President's Office, wrote on Twitter that Kirill's appeal for a "Christmas truce" is "a cynical trap and an element of propaganda."
"The Russian Orthodox Church is not an authority for global Orthodox Christianity and acts only as a 'propagandist of war.' It has called for the genocide of Ukrainians, encouraged mass murders, and insists on even greater militarization of Russia," Podoliak added.
The Russian Orthodox Church and some other Orthodox churches celebrate Christmas on Jan. 7, while a majority of Orthodox churches celebrate it on Dec. 25. The Orthodox Church of Ukraine had historically preferred the Jan. 7 date but allowed its parishes to celebrate on Dec. 25 last year.
