On the heels of what should have been the start of serious peace talks between Russia and Ukraine, but instead devolved into a 90-minute farce, it seems appropriate to pay special homage today to the largest group of people presently being held hostage by Vladimir Putin: the people of Ukraine.

They are not in Russian prisons or penal colonies; they are innocent of any wrongdoing; no formal criminal charges have been levied against them. Instead, they are trapped in shelters and basements, living in daily fear that at any moment their lives might be taken from them by the next bomb, missile or drone launched by Russia’s forces.

They are as much hostage to Putin’s diabolical machinations as the dissidents, journalists and others confined in his prisons. Their lives have been uprooted, destroyed . . . never to be fully healed. They have lost loved ones, friends and colleagues; sustained permanent physical and emotional injuries beyond measure; seen their homes demolished; had their children ripped from their arms and taken away to Russian “re-education camps.”

They struggle to survive from day to day, their only hope for any sort of future lying with the leaders of the Western nations who continue to fight on their behalf . . . but with the realization that, even when this war finally does come to an end, life will never, ever be as it once was.

And so, with a heavy heart, I add The People of Ukraine to my list of Putin’s hostages, with a prayer that Europe’s Coalition of the Willing, together with the United States, will not give up the fight until they have succeeded in overcoming Putin’s outrageous demands and won a just and lasting peace for the sovereign nation of Ukraine.

*. *. *

And, as always, we honor those hostages still in the prisons and penal colonies, also awaiting their day of justice and freedom:

The People of Ukraine
The Azov 12
David Barnes
Ales Bialiatski (in Belarus)
Gordon Black
Andrei Chapiuk (in Belarus)
Antonina Favorskaya
Konstantin Gabov
Robert Gilman
Stephen James Hubbard
Sergey Karelin
Ihar Karney (in Belarus) on
Vadim Kobzev
Darya Kozyreva
Artyom Kriger
Uladzimir Labkovich (in Belarus)
Michael Travis Leake
Aleksei Liptser
Ihar Losik (in Belarus)
Mikita Losik (in Belarus)
Daniel Martindale
Farid Mehralizada (in Azerbaijan)
Nika Novak
Marfa Rabkova (in Belarus)
Igor Sergunin
Dmitry Shatresov
Robert Shonov
Eugene Spector
Valiantsin Stafanovic (in Belarus)
Siarhei Tsikhanouski (in Belarus)
Laurent Vinatier
Robert Romanov Woodland
Vladislav Yesypenko (in Crimea)
Yuras Zyankovich (in Belarus)

. . . and any others I may have missed.

You are not forgotten.

Just sayin’ . . .

Brendochka
5/18/25