- Moscow worshipers crowded into the vast Christ the Savior Cathedral overnight
- The latest appearance came after it was revealed he is being treated for cancer
Vladimir Putin was seen celebrating Orthodox Easter on Sunday, just days after a US intelligence leak revealed that his top general was readying to ‘throw’ the war in Ukraine as the Russian leader reportedly undergoes treatment for chemotherapy.
Moscow’s worshipers crowded into the vast Christ the Savior Cathedral overnight with the Russian despot in attendance for the Easter service led by one of his vocal supporters.
Patriarch Kirill – who splintered the worldwide Orthodox Church following his statements backing Russia’s invasion – led the congregation during the midnight service.
The latest appearance by Putin came after it was unveiled that he is receiving treatment for cancer, according to a rumour contained in the leaked American intelligence document.
The leaked document – which appears to be the gravest disclosure of US secrets in years – has prompted a national security investigation in the US. But the information also appears to be highly damaging for the Kremlin following the intelligence revelations.
The services began late Saturday and were to extend long into Sunday as phalanxes of white-robed clerics circulated through the cathedral swinging smoking censers and a choir sang and chanted.
Putin, dressed in a dark suit, white shirt and dark purple tie, stood to one side in the Cathedral, holding a lit red candle, live images of the midnight service showed.
The tyrant crossed himself several times during the ceremony, known as the Divine Liturgy. When Patriarch Kirill announced ‘Christ has risen’, Putin joined the other members of the congregation with the reply ‘Truly he is risen’. He otherwise did not speak.
Putin has praised the church for supporting Moscow’s forces fighting in Ukraine in an Orthodox Christmas message designed to rally people behind his vision of modern Russia.
Most Western churches observed Easter on April 9, but the Russian Orthodox Church follows a different calendar.
In a video message broadcast on state television before the start of the service, Kirill lamented the ‘grave events taking place on our Russian historical land, ‘ echoing the claim of Putin and other Russian officials that an independent Ukraine is essentially a fiction.
Kirill called for prayers ‘so that peace and a common good life, fraternal relations again unite our peoples, who were once the one people of united Russia.’
The service comes after the alleged disclosure of detailed information about troop movements and losses on both sides fighting in Ukraine. The trove also contained daily intelligence briefings – a collection of short updates from a variety of sources from around the world.
One of these alleged briefings appears to contain a rumour that said that Russia’s top general is conspiring to ‘throw’ the war in Ukraine while Putin is undergoing chemotherapy treatment.
The claim suggests Russian National Security Council Secretary Nikolay Patrushev and Russian Chief of the General Staff Valery Gerasimov are behind the plot.
Pictures of this part of the documents have been shared online along with many of the other 53-pages included in the leak.
It says that the plot – uncovered by Ukraine – is ‘presumably in an attempt to sabotage Russian President Vladimir Putin’.
‘Ukraine Learns of Alleged Russian Plot to ‘Throw’ So-Called Special Military Operation By 5 March,’ says the title of the intelligence update.
Small parts of the update have been redacted, but it does include a string of coded of letters along the top that signify its security classification.
This comes after Ukrainian and Russian forces continued fighting in the smashed eastern city of Bakhmut.
Ukraine’s military said on Saturday that pro-Kyiv forces were still holding on amid the extremely bloody battle.
Russia’s defence ministry said that fighters from the Wagner mercenary group had captured two more areas of Bakhmut, the main target of Moscow’s offensive in eastern Ukraine.
Wagner has spearheaded Russia’s attempt to take Bakhmut since last summer in what has been the longest and deadliest battle of the war for both sides.
‘Bloody battles unprecedented in recent decades are taking place in the middle of the city’s urban area,’ said Serhiy Cherevatyi, spokesperson for Ukraine’s eastern military command.
‘Our soldiers are doing everything in bloody and fierce battles to grind down (the enemy’s) combat capability and break its morale. Every day, in every corner of this city, they are successfully doing so,’ he told the 1+1 television channel.
The Russian defence ministry also claimed Wagner units had taken two areas on the northern and southern outskirts of the city. Russian army paratroop units were supporting the claimed advance by holding back Ukrainian forces on the flanks, it added, but this report could not be confirmed.
Britain said in an intelligence update on Friday that Ukrainian troops had been forced to cede some territory in Bakhmut as Russia mounted a renewed assault there, with intense artillery fire over the previous two days.
Bakhmut, which had a pre-war population of around 70,000 people, has been Russia’s main target in a winter offensive that has so far yielded scant gains despite infantry ground combat of an intensity unseen in Europe since World War Two.
Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky made no mention of Bakhmut in his daily video address on Saturday and reiterated Kyiv’s desire to join NATO as soon as possible. Ukraine would need effective security guarantees before that happened, he said, but gave no details.