Many Ukrainians will on Monday celebrate Christmas Day on Dec. 25 for the first time, after Kyiv changed the date from the Orthodox Church observance of Jan. 7 in a snub to Russia.

Ukraine passed a law in July moving the celebration to the day when most of the Christian world marks Christmas.

The law signed by President Volodymyr Zelenskyy noted that Ukrainians wanted to "live their own life with their own traditions and holidays."