Ukraine is not only a neighbour of Russia but its etymological roots are in the Slavic for borderlands as Ukraine remains the borderlands between the might of Russia and whatever empires once lay to Russia’s west.

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MI6’s hard line BBC, stirring it up as always, is at it again. This time, they are pretending that Ukraine is celebrating Christmas on a new date as part of its shift to distance itself from Russia, its fellow East European country which, as it happens, not only adjoins Ukraine but will adjoin it for eternity.

Christmas, the BBC informs us, now falls in Ukraine on December 25^th “for the first time since 1917.”

Zelensky’s Christmas decree is, apparently “more than just a change of date from 7 January – the date for Christmas in the Julian calendar, which Russia uses” but is also “the continuation of a significant cultural shift in the country – the latest attempt to eradicate Moscow’s influence in Ukraine. The adoption of the Western, Gregorian calendar is also a sign of Kyiv’s (sic) continuing bid to align itself with Europe”.

Let’s just stop the BBC’s gallop there for a second. First off, Ukraine did not celebrate Christmas on December 25^th in 1917. Ukraine in 1917 was in the throes of the Ukrainian Soviet War, whose belligerents included the Russian White Army, the Russian Red Army, the anarchist Revolutionary Insurgent Army of Ukraine and the Armies of the Second Polish Republic, amongst very many others.

December 25th 1917 itself was notable as the Bolsheviks proclaimed their Ukrainian government on that day and their 30,000 strong militia launched a major offensive against the Galician lines. No one in Ukraine was singing Christmas carols in the “European” tradition. They were either getting out of Dodge, or killing or being killed.

As regards January 7^th, that is the Orthodox Christmas, as celebrated by the world’s Orthodox Christians, including those in Syria, Palestine, Romania, Ukraine, Bulgaria, Greece, Iceland, Ireland, Italy, Canada, Vietnam, Venezuela, Vanuatu and America.

Although Russia’s Orthodox Christians celebrate Orthodox Christmas with their own unique customs, theirs is only a variation in style, not in substance. The good Catholics of Russia and Belarus, where they form a not insignificant minority, celebrate Christmas on 25 December and, in many cases, as they do in Palestine and Syria, also on January 7^th with their compatriots and fellow brothers and sisters in Christ. And why not?

Next off, Russia is as integral a part of Europe as are Sweden and Sicily. I mention those two countries as both have a deep devotion to St Lucy (Sancta Lucia), as did Irish writer James Joyce, who named his daughter after this pan-European saint.

I cite Sicily as a country because Sicilians refer to mainland Italy as Europe, or the Continent. They see themselves as being separate but the same and, say what you like about Sicilians but they don’t have the stupid hang ups about their neighbours Ukrainian fascists and their BBC enablers have.

Speaking of St Lucy, the patron saint of light, let’s return to the BBC to see what further light these Luciferians can throw on matters.

The article then switches its attention to some Ukrainian factory or other that makes Christmas decorations, baubles and the like, “small pieces of Christmas cheer”, as our ex rugby playing BBC correspondent calls them.

Fair enough. However, this year, Rugby man notices a distinct “military theme. Miniature soldiers, MiG fighter jets, even a Ukrainian tractor pulling a Russian tank – all hang from a shelf, destined for a Christmas tree”. So much for Jesus, the Prince of Peace, as described in our recent editorial.

The BBC’s rugby correspondent next pops in on Father Andriy of Zelensky’s schismatic Orthodox Church of Ukraine who laments that “unfortunately for many people in the world, Ukraine is linked to Russia. And Ukraine is always viewed in the context of being a neighbour of Russia.”

Without being too pedantic about it, Ukraine is not only a neighbour of Russia but its etymological roots are in the Slavic for borderlands as Ukraine remains the borderlands between the might of Russia, once epitomised in the sprawling tsarist Empire, and whatever empires once lay to Russia’s west. That is just the way it was and it is.

Father Andriy does not see eye to eye with me on this. To him, Ukraine is “more a neighbour of Europe. And the fact that we’ve now changed the calendar is not shifting away from Russia. It is us returning back to Europe, where we belong”.

So Ukraine belongs with Sweden and Sicily, who honour St Lucy and Moldova (97% Orthodox), Greece (90% Orthodox), Serbia (85% Orthodox), Romania (81% Orthodox), Georgia (84% Orthodox), Cyprus (73% Orthodox), Montenegro (72% Orthodox), North Macedonia (70% Orthodox), Russia (79% Orthodox) and Belarus (73% Orthodox). No arguments there, as long as myopic schismatics keep their distance and stop imprisoning and slaughtering non schismatics.

Although the article finishes by asking this schismatic priest whether he can ever forgive Russia for defending the Orthodox Christians of the Borderlands, that is the wrong question no matter whether Zelensky and his propagandists use either the Gregorian or Julian calendar. There are over 500,000 dead Ukrainian soldiers as a result of this needless war and Zelensky, together with Father Andriy and all other schismatics and BBC propagandists, should be begging the families of those martyrs for forgiveness.

But the BBC would need a smidgen of self-awareness to do that because, adjoining that stupid article on Christmas in the rump Reich is another revealing one on Ukrainian “refugees” returning home from Blighty to Ukraine on holidays for the festive season. Here in Ireland, we have Ukrainians like this “esteemed surgeon”, who is currently before the courts for slashing another Ukrainian draft dodger. The luck of the Irish!

And though all of those freeloaders could claim, with some legitimacy, to be victims of Zelensky’s stupid and totally avoidable war Christmas, by any calendar, can only make sense if we do some self-reflection, no matter if we bless ourselves in the Orthodox or “European” (= Latin/Sicilian Catholic) way.

Whereas the Europeans of Russia and the Caucasus seem eminently able for that task, it seems to be beyond the ken of the spokespeople for the Europeans of the Borderlands, who don’t know who or what they are. Europe’s Swedes, Sicilians, Calabrians, Armenians, Georgians and Russians all have their own customs, mannerisms and so forth and there is beauty in each and every one of them, as there are in all things under God’s sun. The extremist BBC can encourage Zelensky’s propagandists to deck their Christmas trees with “miniature soldiers, MIG fighter jets, even a Ukrainian tractor pulling a Russian tank” till the cows come home. But, for millions of Ukrainians, Christmas, by either or both calendars, will not be a time for decking the halls with boughs of holly and, with their loved ones either recently buried in the local cemetery or missing, presumed dead in action, it certainly will not be “the season to be jolly”.

Christmas in Ukraine, to me at least, is best typified by Gonzalo Lira, the (atheistic?) Kononovich twins, and all those priests and lay people who tried to defend their faith and their homeland against Father Andriy and Zelensky’s other brown priests. And, like the Orthodox Christians of Syria and Palestine, who are today at the mercy of the same forces the BBC, Father Andriy, Zelensky and their ilk typify, they are not only in our thoughts and prayers but very much in our hopes and actions for a better, more civilised world than the one those who deck their Christmas trees with “miniature soldiers, MIG fighter jets, even a Ukrainian tractor pulling a Russian tank” kill for.