Birth of Christ was formerly celebrated on 7 January, but has moved in symbolic shift away from Russia
Russian shelling in southern Ukraine’s Kherson region has killed four people, including an 87-year-old man and his 81-year-old wife who died after a strike on their apartment building.
The barrage on Sunday injured nine other people, including a 15-year-old, sparked fires in homes and at a private medical facility, and set a local gas pipeline alight, the head of the regional military administration, Oleksandr Prokudin, said.
“There are no holidays for the enemy,” Andriy Yermak, the head of the Ukrainian president’s office, wrote on social media, commenting on the Kherson attack. “They do not exist for us as long as the enemy kills our people and remains on our land.”
The shelling across Kherson reached the centre of the region’s capital city of the same name. The assault took place as Ukraine prepared to officially celebrate Christmas for the first time on 25 December, in a symbolic shift away from the Russian Orthodox church, which observes the birth of Christ on 7 January.
