Some people still celebrate on the 7th, most have switched to the 25th. The switch to the 25th seems irreversible, at least on territories that are not under occupation.
Christmas celebrations still have a much more secular character relative to say the US.
They still mostly celebrate orthodox Christmas despite this change
How do you know this? Do you speak Ukrainian? Have you ever been to Ukraine?
Keep in mind that I live in Ukraine.
Not to mention an immediate sanction of all EU companies working with russia (Austria's Raiffeisen bank has been "getting out" of russia for almost 3 years now).
Hamas did kill a lot of civilians on october 7th. This does not in any way justify the statements by Smotrich.
I stand by statement that Smotrich's statement has a very "russian" quality to it.
Thank you for the kind words. I do appreciate it. I genuinely mean it.
What is happening in Palestine is genocide. I would be a hypocrite if I didn't agree with this. My somewhat aloof statements are because I don't speak Arabic or Hebrew and I've never been to Israel/Palestine. But yes, Israeli actions are colonialist and genocidal (both current actions and the broader historical context). You don't need to speak Arabic or Hebrew to see this.
FWIW, I think Zelenskyy has a much more negative attitude of Netanyahu specifically and Israel's policies than his statements would lead you to believe. We don't have any other options because we are critically dependent on aid from US and EU. Ukraine has provided aid to Gaza and Zelenskyy has made (subtle) public statements that suggest thinking beyond a simplistic pro-Israel approach.
Palestinian leadership has definitely been pro-russia in their statements. It was wrong for me to say Palestinians in general support russian genocidal imperialism. That being said, I don't hold it against them (as in my OP, I lean toward the Palestiniain side) as they don't really have any choice.
Most probably just see the Israel Arab conflict as another wing of the same global war that Ukraine is involved in. to Kyiv, Israel is fighting against an amalgamation of terrorist groups and states that are all allied with the aggressor Russia, and some of them are directley aiding Russia’s invasion of Ukraine Iran.
This is actually somewhat close to the Ukrainian public's perception of the Israel/Palestine conflict. Well, the part of the public that follows what's going, most people have more pressing concerns.
Thus, when you’re being sold out and stabbed in the back every day, you have to resort to ruthless pragmatism, you can be Pro Ukraine, and Anti-Israel, but you should also recognize that the side fighting against Israel, is also fighting against Ukraine.
I personally have a skeptical view of the Israeli government and I don't think there is anything Ukraine can do with respect to gaining Israeli support (although I understand and even support the "PR needs" with respect to the US). I get the impression the Netanyahu government is basically a corrupt, oligarch-run ethno-supremacist movement. And the statement by Israel’s finance minister, Bezalel Smotrich:
“No one in the world will allow us to starve 2 million people, even though it might be justified and moral in order to free the hostages.”
Sounds very russian to me.
While whataboutism is pretty common when discussing russia. The actions of russia and the US are not comparable.
It would be like if the US annexed Basra Governorate. Stole all the children to US mainland (and sent them to re-education camps). Sent any Iraqi in Basra caught speaking Arabic into a torture camp. Banned Islam and forced everyone to convert to protestant Christianity. And on top of that forced all Iraqis in annexed Basra to eat Tex-Mex style pork chops.
His statement is not aimed at putin or the russians.
If anything it is aimed at "not all russians" types in the west.
You don't though. You have zero knowledge about Zelensky beyond some high-level english language news articles. You don't even speak Ukrainian. You've never lived in Ukraine.
You are acting in bad faith. Contrarianism for contrarianism's sake. You are harming the Palestinian cause with your attitude. That's why I said you don't actually care and you're just doing this for theatrics.
Yeah, the multiple loyalties thing is complete BS.
If that was the case Zelensky would have evacuated to Lviv as per American recommendations. He is clearly not a person to give up.
And I didn't even vote for him in 2019 (wasn't a big fan of his opponent, but there were other issues at play).
This is complete speculation on my part, but I think there is a internal component to Trump's actions.
There was that US comedy show that portrayed Trump as a toddler who was sent to the child's table by his former adviser. Trump then fired the adviser.
And what do they say? And which exact Church are they refering to?