Kremlin slams ‘illiterate fool’ Starmer as Putin claims God ordered him to invade Ukraine
Vladimir Putin made a bizarre Orthodox Christmas address to his senior offices claiming God was on their side in their war on Ukraine
Putin was speaking during Russia’s Orthodox Christmas celebration (Image: East2West)
Vladimir Putin has told his troops they are killing in Ukraine on God’s orders.
The Russian ruler’s holy war claim came as he marked Orthodox Christmas at a midnight church service flanked by GRU military intelligence generals and colonels, and their families.
He stood alongside the highly-decorated commander of military unit 92154, which was recently accused of organising an explosion on a railway in NATO state Poland.
This came as a senior Putin lieutenant branded Sir Keir Starmer “illiterate and a fool” for vowing to base British troops in Ukraine as part of a peace deal.
This would open up the UK to missile strikes by Russia, implied senator Dmitry Rogozin.
Putin followed his sinister messianic language by sanctioning overnight attacks on Ukraine which left seven people – including two terror-struck girls, eight and 16 – injured in Dnipro in strikes on residential buildings, schools, and kindergartens.
“Today [at Orthodox Christmas] we celebrate the wonderful, bright holiday of the Nativity of Christ,” Putin told the intelligence officers.
The latest attack on Dnipro (Image: East2West)
“And we often call the Lord the Saviour, because He came to Earth to save all people.
“So, the soldiers, the soldiers of Russia, always, as if on the Lord’s orders, fulfil this very mission – the defence of the Fatherland, the salvation of the Motherland and its people.”
He portrayed Russian soldiers as acting on God’s orders, casting the war as a sacred mission rather than his own political decision, invoking Orthodox theology to legitimise his military violence.
As he spoke at the midnight mass, he was seen with GRU military intelligence service top brass Maj-Gen Aleksei Galkin, commander of elite unit 92154, as well as Col Andrey Popov and Col Konstantin Maslyanko, along with wives and children.
The Christmas service took place at a church on the grounds of the Senezh Special Purpose Centre – military unit 92154, a GRU-linked special operations site in Moscow region, and that the unit’s commander Maj Gen Alexei commanded by Galkin.
Putin appeared to be giving his blessing to his GRU dirty tricks operatives as European security services warn Russia is escalating covert activity across the continent.
A Polish railway sabotage investigation identified a GRU officer allegedly based at unit 92154 as handler of a Ukrainian accused of organising explosions.
A newer GRU structure — the “Department of Special Tasks” — has coordinated sabotage and assassination plotting in Europe, including an incendiary DHL parcel bombing scheme.
Putin’s extraordinary claim of a divine mandate and appearance at this GRU church is the latest clear sign that he has no intention of halting the war and agreeing to Donald Trump’s peace initiative.
Attack dog Rogozin, his former deputy premier and space agency chief, slammed Starmer over his announcement that Britain and France would base troops in Ukraine after a peace deal.
“Even after Russia’s defeat in the Crimean War of 1853-1856, such thoughts never occurred to England, France, or the Turks and Sardinians,” he said.
“Of course, Starmer is illiterate and a fool in the grand scheme of things, but he should still understand what we will do to their shi*** kingdom if they actually try to implement this nonsense.”
More children were wounded in Russian Christmas strikes on Zaporizhzhia region.
Hospitals in Lviv were disconnected from electricity due to shortages after weeks of Russian missile and drone strikes at power plants.
Ukraine exploded an oil plant in a spectacular inferno at Stary Oskol in Belgorod border region.
“As a result of the detonation, several tanks caught fire on the site,” said Belgorod region governor Vyacheslav Gladkov.
“Firefighters are currently extinguishing the blaze.”
