A girl lights a candle before the start of the Orthodox Christmas in St. Michael's Monastery of Kyiv, Ukraine, on Friday, January 6, 2023.

A branch of Ukraine’s Orthodox church has announced that it will allow its churches to celebrate Christmas on December 25, rather than January 7, as is traditional in Orthodox congregations.

KYIV, Ukraine — Packing Kyiv’s 1,000-year-old Lavra Cathedral for Orthodox Christmas, hundreds of worshipers heard the service in that church in the Ukrainian language for the first time in ...

Christmas, like so much else in Ukraine these days, is tightly tangled up in the country’s war with Russia. The Ukrainian Orthodox Church has taken the position that the Julian calendar used in ...

Ukraine's main Orthodox Church has rejected the authority of the Moscow patriarch, and many Ukrainian believers have shifted their calendar to celebrate Christmas on Dec. 25 as in the West.

Orthodox Christmas came under harsh circumstances in Ukraine this year. For families like the Kovtuns, living next to the remains of their shell-struck home, celebration was an act of defiance.

Russian President Vladimir Putin on Thursday ordered a 36-hour ceasefire in Ukraine over Orthodox Christmas, the first major truce of the more than 10-month long war that has killed tens of ...

On Christmas, Ukraine's Orthodox Christians try to find solace NPR's Tim Mak is in Ukraine as people there celebrate their first Christmas since the invasion.

Ukraine rejected Putin’s call for an Orthodox Christmas ceasefire on Thursday, saying a truce is only possible if Russian forces leave Ukraine.

Ukraine rejected the cease-fire ordered unilaterally by Russian President Vladimir Putin, which began Friday to coincide with the start of Orthodox Christmas.

In October, a branch of Ukraine’s Orthodox church announced it would allow its churches to celebrate Christmas on December 25, rather than January 7. As Orthodox Christmas falls on Saturday ...