sadness, suffering and tears, we so need a sign that the lord god is with us, on our side, in the holy scriptures, such a sign that with us god is the birth of a child, and here we are celebrating the nativity of christ, the birth in the human body of god himself , whom the prophet isaiah calls the prince of peace, a wonderful counselor. god is with us on christmas day, i wish you all a merry christmas, a good christmas, a blessed, happy, victorious new year for all of us.

i welcome voice of america ukrainian and our program chas time to the air. my name is ostap yarish after a break of more than a century, ukraine once again celebrates christmas on december 25, returning to previous traditions. the postponement of the holiday reflects another cultural departure of ukraine from russia and another step towards rapprochement with the western world. the us embassy in kyiv addressed the ukrainians with various wishes, wishing them to spend this winter in warmth and silence. together with the americans this year reese. noted by the ukrainian community in the usa. iryna shynkarenko and dmytro melnyk attended a special service at st. andrew's church near washington. their report follows. the ukrainian orthodox church of st. andrew, which is located near washington, was founded more than 70 years ago, and for the first time during this time , christmas is celebrated here on december 25. the change of the calendar, as the abbot of the church and the believers themselves said, did not become a problem. in the church for a solemn service. about two

hundred people gathered, both from washington and neighboring states, among them immigrants from ukraine who recently moved to the united states because of the war, and representatives of the ukrainian diaspora, who were born or have lived in the usa for many years and preserve ukrainian traditions. everyone's prayers for ukrainian soldiers and ukrainians who defend their land and suffer from war. not all ukrainian orthodox churches in america, about 40%, have yet moved to the celebration of christmas on december 25. this year will be celebrated on january 7, however, in the church of st. andrew, they are convinced that it will take a little time to adjust, and they are sure that soon all ukrainian orthodox churches in the usa will join the celebration of christmas on december 25. when the metropolitan anthony said that those churches that want to switch now, in accordance with solidarity with ukraine, because the ukrainian orthodox church also said that they can switch, then... many churches have already switched to this

new julian calendar, but not all of them, because many parishioners are not yet ready to do this, our parish here is st. andrew's, we moved because we wanted to separate as far as possible from russia, in those war times, how can we celebrate together with russia, we cannot , we cannot do it, so we, as parish, we decided that we will celebrate now and... the first time that our parish in all its 75 years of existence celebrates christmas for the first time on december 25. we grew up celebrating january 7th , all our lives, and i kept thinking that we should switch to a new calendar, because the whole world celebrates december 25th, and so i insisted that it be so, but... our hierarchs said that while

ukraine celebrates january 7, we will celebrate january 7, and so it was, and now the last time, when the war broke out, and we want as much as possible on all sides to distance ourselves from of muscovy, then finally patriarch epiphany moved to december 25, and we are going, personally, i am very glad, my were just born in ukraine, and as i was born here in washington, and we always went to st. andrew's from childhood and we always celebrated the somo, the sixth and the 7th, and this year we very happily changed to the 25th. our dear brothers and sisters in ukraine, i do not have the right words or the number of words to express our love and respect for you. we know that... these are

difficult moments, but let the joy of christ's christmas take over your hearts, and we we sincerely pray, sincerely... we hope that soon ukraine will gain full territorial integrity, full independence, and that this diabolical war will stop soon, we worshiped the good righteous sun, iryna shinkarenko, dmytro melnyk, the voice of america. in addition to churches. schools that organize concerts with carols and nativity scenes are now the center of unity of ukrainians in the united states. on the eve of christmas, the school of ukrainian studies in brooklyn also organized a festive nativity scene for students and the community. iryna solomko and pavlo terekhov visited it.

for the students of the school of ukrainian studies, nova khvylka is the first such large-scale christmas concert, its central action is the nativity scene, so the school's senior students are anxiously finishing the final preparations. according to the director and founder of the school, myroslava rozdolska, many girls and boys are new arrivals, since the beginning of the full-scale invasion, the number of students and teachers at the school has doubled. today, the school has 315 students for girls and boys. ukrainian school , such concerts are an opportunity to keep in touch with the homeland, from the first days we had our own headquarters for assistance to ukraine was created, and all the parents got involved, we sent various medical supplies, others needed more

than 100,000 just left school, both the children and the teachers found, you know, a kind of their own... environment at school, we see from those children who still have a hard time in american schools, they simply flourish here, because they feel, first of all, of course, their language is better, their knowledge is ukrainian, they feel confident here, and this gives them opportunities it is better to adapt in general in american society. a community is also forming around the school, going to concerts, festivals and meetings organized by the principal and teachers. the christmas holiday is always such a feeling of light, a feeling of goodness, and it is sorely lacking today for all ukrainians and those who arrived here, and those

who are here, because we all live by what is happening in ukraine today, and that's it such christmas joy should be in the christmas carol, in the meeting of the child of god. and this joy is brought by children, that is, we decided that the christmas carol should rally us a little, unite us, add new strength, light, faith in victory. the festive concert began with the performance of the holy supper, when the family gathers at the table and waits for the main guest, the father who defends ukraine on the frontline. the defender's youngest daughter was played by maria lviv, she is eight years old. maria was born in the usa and has never been to ukraine, but she knows very well what is happening now in her parents' homeland. i played the role of a little daughter who was waiting for her father to come home from the war, and like some children in ukraine

now, the same. i prayed to jesus: jesus, make our dad returned, alive and well, so that we may sit together to the holy supper. and then i ran to my mother and there i said: mother, mother, and angelok told us that our father will soon return from the war, i feel it, i believe it. the children took a very responsible approach to the concert, - says the director. in addition to bortep, the eighth -grade students themselves initiated the organization of the lightning festival, they wrote the text themselves, shared the roles, they admit, they wanted to show comedy and make everyone happy. i have been here for a very long time at this school and i did it with the senior class for about two years that's why malanka i was a goat like him and now

i came and i thought, well, a second chance , i'll be the main role, malanka i... you think, that's how difficult it was, to go on stage and tell these words, because it's a lot of people and everyone is worried, and everyone's stress, well, i think it's better to go to this school - it's like you're in ukraine. in which language do you feel at home with everyone and how i came here eight years ago and it was a little difficult for a mute to go to school there to speak english, but then i learned it all and even if there is a ukrainian school, you have to come and support to teach ukrainian language. william colton, a member of the assembly of new york, this is the lower house of the parliament of this state, the sabbath school is in his district and he is a frequent guest here, he tries not to miss a single concert and... so many people, children from ukraine came here, we received them in

in our schools, in our area, exposed them to our customs , culture and traditions, because when we share culture and traditions, everyone benefits from it, so when we have such a school that teaches children about their roots and traditions, to share all this with community, it's for everyone benefit, so i always encourage it and want to participate in it. i support the school. measures and city government. jomanne williams is a public defender in new york. his duties include protecting the affairs of the city's citizens. he came to visit the ukrainians with his young daughter and his wife. it is important to us to make sure that new yorkers preserve their culture, their language, their cuisine, their heritage. it is important that people in general can communicate, and in the difficult times that the people of ukraine are going through, this is needed even more. therefore, they should...

myroslava rozdolska says that the school continues to collect financial aid for ukraine, both for the military and, for example, for children whose parents were taken away by the war. charity, respect and service to ukraine are important components of school education of students of the new wave, the director notes. from new york iryna solomko, pavlo terekhov, voice of america. here is a report from brooklyn by our colleagues: how do priests, soldiers at the front, monks and ordinary ukrainians perceive the transition to the new holiday calendar, how will it affect the traditions of celebrating christmas holidays, learned omylyano shudlyak and yurii dankevich, their report from lviv, further. when vasyl markiv with a bundle of hay in his hands turns from the bustling lviv square to those. the courtyard of the former jesuit school , where bohdan khmelnytsky once studied, this means that christmas

is very close, so everything is fine, here vasyl and his colleagues are making a giant three-meter old man, an ancient symbol of prosperity, it consists of such small old men, which seem to be collected in the area somewhere three 300 pieces, so every year new ones are made, the old one is renewed, and it is stocked up in the summer grain. there are oats, and there may be barley, and wheat, rye, flax, these are all different forages , everything is collected and dried, and then before, already starting in the fall, a smaller one begins to knit grandfather and prepare for the main grandfather, this is enough a lot of painstaking work, with which you have to sit more than one evening. on christmas day, this main grandfather of lviv is displayed in the square, and a solemn procession announces the beginning of the christmas holidays. this year, for the first time, the main grandfather... is worn on december 24, not january 6, and as before, it is located opposite the garrison temple,

the main military cathedral of the city. local chaplains serving at the front consider the new date of christmas, december 25, deeply symbolic, first of all, for the armed forces of ukraine. at the level of individual brigades, on december 25 , christmas was actually celebrated at the front. instead, on january 7, this date was actually ignored, because... in fact, without delving deeply into the theological aspects, for many of our defenders, it was very difficult to celebrate this date together with the enemy, realizing that the whole world celebrates on another day, that has been redesigned, this is a really powerful thing, a mattress, petrovich, are you ordering a pizza, but no, this is... a really powerful thing. this social media video from the ground forces of ukraine shows a new

dimension of the new ukrainian christmas. now , in a certain sense, christmas is such a demarcation line not only in time, but also between civilizational spaces. it is about the fact that the war that is going on, for me in a certain, possibly simplified formulation, looks like a war of carolers and non-carolers. all essentially european civilization even. in the age of secularism, she is fundamentally christian, christmas is important for her. the barbarians who oppose this civilization did not have their own stakes. sir, what are you doing? carefully. this is money in banks. but i, to be honest, somehow not so much. mom prepared it for you. i'll come if you don't eat, understood? plus, come on. ukrainian warrior. regardless of whether he knows kol well, where, whether he puts a grandfather in himself, when he feels the love and

support of those ukrainian people who will definitely give him a spoonful of kuti, who will definitely... send him a ringing kulyada to the front, he will feel like a big, maybe a small part of a big community, of the large ukrainian community. bohdan tikholoz's office is located at one of the most famous addresses in lviv. here on sofiivka stands the house of one of the most outstanding ukrainians in history, the writer ivan franko. he wore an embroidered shirt under his suit, at christmas the european christmas tree in the frank house stood next to the ukrainian grandfather. let's remember the time of frank's departure to eternity, the time of the first world war, and his last christmas eve and last christmas, this was also during the war, but even then ukrainian snipers, among whom he was treated and stayed, gathered for a holy supper, and took this spirit and power of christmas with them into battle in order to defend that ukraine, which may not have been on

the world map at that time, but which they only dreamed of. the oldest museologist of ukraine, an employee of the house of franko vira bon. celebrates his 95th birthday. the most vivid memories from my childhood spent in the kholm region. there were poles around, our village is ukrainian. and that ukrainian woman held on to the church, only to the church. in the church, we made a huge christmas tree. once upon a time, all decorated christmas trees were made by hand, so they were not bought in shop. and today we are in one house , tomorrow in another, the day after tomorrow in a third , girls and young boys gathered, and we made those decorations for the christmas tree, together with that we sang carols, before christmas, ukrainian scouts of plastun solemnly bring the bethlehem flame of peace into franko's house, this one of the addresses

that scouts visit every year, because frank's youngest son petro became a co-founder of the reservoir in 1911. and even wrote a textbook for plastons. we share the last lamp with all of you. the tradition of passing the flame of peace from bethlehem, the place birth of christ, belongs to the austrian scouts. every year, ukrainian platoon fighters receive fire on the border from their polish and slovak colleagues. this year, after the change in the date of the christmas celebration in ukraine, they had unusually little time to distribute lamps with fire to hundreds of addresses. usually chicken. takes over two or three churches there in fact, here's where to put it, there are medical institutions, there are orphanages, several orphanages, there are a lot of schools, in fact, it is especially a very good tradition when the plastun , who studies at the school, himself actually wants to volunteer to take away the fire, transfer it simply, simply to our school, we

had a few weeks for it, and this year there is a little more than 10 days in fact, that's why the schedule. very dynamic, very tense, but we try very hard to be on time everywhere, to bring everywhere where it is needed, to bring this piece of love, kindness and joy in such a very uncertain time. despite the uncertain times, god is eternal, ivan franko's favorite song sounds as loud in these walls as it did a century ago. chudlyak yuriy dankevich, for the voice of america. and returning to american news: lawyers for former president donald trump insist that he is immune from prosecution in cases related to the 2020 election , because, according to them, trump was fulfilling his presidential duties. the day before , the supreme court of the state of colorado excluded

donald trump from participating in the prairies in this state, referring to the fact that he was allegedly instigated. his supporters before the uprising. the ex-president's lawyers have already announced that they will appeal this decision in the supreme court maria ulyanovska asked sergey kuderi, professor of political science at baylor university in texas, about what consequences this could have for the election campaign next year. we understand that further this decision will go to the supreme court. donald trump has already appealed, his campaign is appealing the decision, and the decision will be reviewed by the supreme court. of the united states, and the overwhelming majority of jurists who expressed their opinions believe that the supreme court of the united states will not support. this decision and actually not will actually enable trump to run for president of the united states. again, it should be noted that the state of colorado is

a democratic state. and many supporters of donald trump consider this decision also in the context of a political campaign first of all. the judges who made this decision were mostly appointed by democrats, and accordingly have certain political preferences. and that's why... that's why the legitimacy of this decision from the point of view of republicans, especially trump voters, is very low, and it's unlikely that this decision will affect the course presidential campaign. from a voter perspective, the case is seen as political because the sedition charges against trump are inherently political. of course, it is likely that some of the judges in the supreme court are connected to the democrats. they support this decision, but the absolute majority of supreme court judges were appointed by republicans, in particular by donald trump himself, and therefore the predictions

are precisely that the supreme court will side with trump, but it is not only conservative judges who think so, i already talked about what in the supreme court of colorado itself , the judges themselves, some of these judges do not consider such a decision to be justified, if ... it really happens that the supreme court upholds the decision of the supreme court of colorado, and trump is disqualified, then it is clear that the precedent of colorado will be extended to other states, and trump will be deprived of the opportunity to run for president, or at least in the states that are dominated by democrats, and it will be very difficult for trump to actually participate in the presidential race, but i think that ... actually creates a very serious political risks, if it happens, it's unlikely, but if it happens, it poses great political risks precisely because for most

of donald trump's supporters it will be seen as manipulation of the political process, it will undermine the legitimacy of the presidential race itself, and i think will only increase internal polarization. and confrontation within the united states, and so the stakes are really very high, but as i said, i don't think we'll see that kind of development, indeed, it could cause completely unpredictable development of events, if the supreme court supports the decision of the colorado court, and we see that in some states, especially republican states, in particular in texas. florida, we can see opposition to this decision, and attempts to somehow change

the very course of the election campaign, and limit the possible participation of democratic candidates, if the supreme court limits the right of donald trump to participate in the presidential campaign, it will be seen as a restriction of the actual democracy in the united states or as rosia democracy and therefore can really have very serious consequences from the point of view of public opinion and the reaction of republicans to this decision. and the last story for today is about the vorenkov couple, who live only 20 km from the front line in donetsk region. despite the loss of their own home, the couple did not give up and opened their own business, kondytersko cafe. their story will be told by anna kostyuchenko and pavel sukhodorskyi. in may 2023, a russian missile hit the house of 39-year-old donbas resident olena voronkova. a 14-year-old son was at home at the time. when i was with my husband on

work and he called to fly to us. he suddenly caught fire. and the neighbors pulled him out from below through the window. he was not injured, we have a basement in our house , the windows flew out, then a fire started, the roof caught fire, he went down to the basement, and the neighbors ran with the military, they called him, and he climbed out through the window, they took him away in pajamas and slippers, we also, what i was at work, i remained. the house of the voronkovs burned to the ground along with all the property that the couple had accumulated over the years, the family found shelter with acquaintances, and when they recovered a little from the shock,

elena's husband, roman. offered to use the last savings to start her own business, which the woman had dreamed of for a long time, so in the fall, olena opened her own cafe. when we took the little one to summer camp, summer camp, to western ukraine, transcarpathia , we visited coffee shops, i liked the atmosphere, this coffee so much, i thought that we don't have such a thing, and... how nice it would be to do it is in our city, such a cozy city, so that it would be nice for everyone, i did not understand anything about this matter, decided to understand everything, went to study, went to study at boristo in the city of dnipro. a three-day express training in beristo cost olena 800 uah.

when she returned with her husband... she was looking for a place to rent and in october she dared to open a coffee shop, i talked with my husband, i open a coffee shop in the morning , i close it in the evening, i say, no, i 'm afraid, i don't want, i'm afraid, i i don’t understand anything, all of a sudden, now we have to flee, he says, we have to make a decision already, if we stay here, then let’s move to a more peaceful region, away from shelling, the couple is stopping the fact that they have one more small... business left here: we already have our own salon, for which we also earned so hard, hard and participated in the grants of those in order to make it, it is hard for everyone to leave and leave here , although there is no property anymore, but it is still hard, well, there is still work, a team, girls, everyone is left,

the husband did not go to the deer park before... the great war, he learned to be a barber, and 5 years ago, the couple dug up an abandoned premises and opened his own business, which is currently brings the main income. i say that we have been working since the 18th year, and he is already like that, he has already fought back one hundred percent. cafe, it's hard to count right now, we've been working for the second month, and that means there were a lot of investments. such as are needed to start this cafe, that is , those are needed there, for example, for a month of operation of the establishment, that is, it was bought in advance, and that is, now the wife is doing it , that is, another month, probably another month and we will try, it will be understanding what we spend, what we earn, apart from the coffee of cafe voronkovy offers a variety of desserts to taste. they

order from local confectioners. in our city, there were many girls who were engaged in confectionery products, we make, work only on confectionery products of high quality products, not factory, not store-bought, we have everything from natural products. neither the name of the cafe, nor the city, the film crew can announce the voice of america. the owner is afraid that the russians will target her property. olena considers serafanne radio to be the best advertisement for her establishment, says that the locals like it and tell others about the cafe. americano from milk, right? during the christmas holidays, olena put up a christmas tree in the institution and decorated it in the same way as she used to decorate her own house. anna kostyuchenko, pavil sukhodolskyi for voice of america from donetsk region. and with that, we say goodbye, we wish peaceful christmas holidays to everyone who celebrates them these days.

see you see you soon! we are looking for eight-year-old anna roslyakova from the village of voznesenka, this is the melitopol district of the zaporizhzhya region. the settlement was occupied almost from the beginning. war, but hanna roslyakova disappeared in june of this year, and there is no news about her for more than six months. i really hope that thanks to your attention and help, the girl will be found. look at anna's photo and remember her face. the girl looks about eight years old, she has light blond hair and dark eyes. if suddenly someone sees anna roslyakova, or someone knows where she might be now, don't delay and immediately

call us hotline. magnolia children's tracing service line.