Despite the violent conflict that has plagued the country for more than ten months now, the two communities are calling for peace as soon as possible.
War on everyone’s mind. While Orthodox Christmas is celebrated this Saturday, 150 faithful gathered for a prayer on Friday evening at the Saint-Alexandre-Nevsky cathedral, in the 8th arrondissement of Paris. Among them, Russians and Ukrainians, all of whom, without animosity for each other, are calling for an end to the conflict that began last February.
“We need a prayer for the people who are suffering in Ukraine”, assures our camera Tatiana, a Russian from Paris.
A sign of this friendship despite the current situation, the testimony of Mikaelo, a Ukrainian student in France for eight months to escape the Russian invasion, who assures us that his country has “a lot of help, especially from this church and the Orthodox community Russian.”
No politics, but some criticism
For this first Christmas celebrated since the beginning of the war, a certain animosity could be feared between the members of the two communities. It is not so, assures BFMTV Alexandre Jevakhoff, churchwarden of the cathedral.
“The people of the parish are there to pray for the birth of Christ, the rest is outside the context and the religious environment. I know that there are probably people within the parish who have a political position, but there are no debates inside the church, this is not the place”, he underlines.
On our camera, some participants in this emotionally charged mass nevertheless indulge in political commentary.
“All our hearts go out to the Ukrainian people, for people who are suffering for nothing, for a cause that one man has decided. This war should not have taken place”, insists Anna, a Russian who has lived in France for 15 years. .
A “cynical” ceasefire
On the ground, artillery duels continued on Friday in Bakhmout, the frontline hotspot in eastern Ukraine, and shelling in other areas despite Moscow’s announcement of a ceasefire. -unilateral fire of 36 hours, and while the United States promised massive new military aid to kyiv.
The United States said Friday’s strikes in eastern Ukraine showed that the ceasefire announced by Vladimir Putin for Orthodox Christmas was a “cynical” move.
