At this time of Christmas and the expectations of the New Year, we send greetings to all on the birth of God’s Son, because He is our Savior and Hope. We thank God the Father for giving us His beloved only Son. We celebrate this great Holy day, traditionally with the first star we sit down to our traditional Ukrainian family Holy Supper, we remember those close and far who, for various reasons and mainly because of the completely unjust aggression by the Russian enemy, cannot sit down to the Holy Supper, we sing carols, and then take stock of and express our wishes and prayers for the coming year.
First of all, we thank our heroic defenders on various fronts – Donetsk, Kherson, Zaporizhia, Kharkiv, Sumy and Kursk, the President of Ukraine for his devotion and tirelessness, as well as his extraordinary ability to be the voice of Ukraine at international fora and express our heartfelt gratitude to the international community that provided and continues to provide myriad assistance, especially air defense and other military systems. We thank Mother Mary who gave birth to the Son of God and holds our defenders in her care.
Most of all, we thank the people of Ukraine for their extraordinary resilience, dedication and sacrifice. As the Ukrainian poet Ivan Franko wrote, everyone believes that millions of people are depending on him/her and that he must answer for the fate of millions. Therefore, almost everyone in Ukraine has dedicated themselves to the best of their ability to repel the terrible aggressor – the Russian and preserve every corner of Ukrainian land, helping our defenders who are experiencing very difficult circumstances because of the enemy’s far greater forces in numbers and armaments.
Nonetheless, we are filled with hope for the best, hopefully this coming year, a victory over the enemy, the establishment of peace and tranquility and securing the future, so that our young state can flourish and be a benevolent mother to all its children. We are aware that much effort and sacrifice are still needed to complete this picture.
We again turn to the international community with a pure heart and with an outstretched hand of our Ukrainian Kolyada. Help us save both us and you from the most brutal aggressor – the Russian, who wants to grab with his dirty paws the entire democratic and civilized world. Understand at the same time, dear Europeans – English, French, Germans, Poles, Lithuanians, Latvians, Estonians, Finns and others, as well as Americans, Canadians, Australians, that we Ukrainians protect all of you from Satan himself, that Moscow is the embodiment of the antithesis to the Lord God and His beloved son Jesus and the Holy Spirit.
This year’s Christmas, as in the last two years, is actually an inspiration and a new kind of salvation for those who fight evil every day. The personification of this evil is Moscow, but salvation from this evil is visible at the end of the long road for many and palpable even today by current events because of the birth of Our Lord.
We also welcome our brothers and sisters of other nationalities who still suffer in the Evil Empire, Kazan Tatars, Ingush, Chechens, Erzya, Bashkirs, Kalmyks, Sakha and others. We thank them for joining our struggle and call for an uprising internally against our common enemy. Our
task is to join efforts in one common front to overthrow this evil empire and to introduce a new democratic life for the enslaved peoples in the empire, where their human and national rights will be ensured and respected.
The forces of good will overcome the aggression of evil. The only question is how much time and sacrifice it will take. In unity lies the strength of our effort and the assurance of our victory. This will be the victory not only of Kyiv against Moscow, but also the victory of the newborn baby Jesus over the evil incarnate. This should be the essence of our Christmas celebration and the anticipation of the New Year with renewed hope for and conviction of victory. May the Lord God and baby Jesus bless us on this holy path.
December 20, 2024