Last week brought an exchange of 314 prisoners — 157 Ukrainians and an equal number of Russians — as the result of the latest round of peace talks between Moscow and Kyiv at Abu Dhabi. They were prisoners of war, and not political hostages. Nevertheless, they are all — Ukrainians and Russians alike — victims of an unjust war perpetrated by Vladimir Putin’s tyrannical regime, and we celebrate their return to the care of their families.

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The names of the returnees are not readily available; but there are indications that some civilians were among those exchanged. This leads me to wonder whether they included a group that I call “The Crimea 8” — a mix of Russian, Ukrainian and Armenian citizens who were involved, possibly innocently, in the delivery of explosives in October of 2022 that detonated while crossing the Russian-built Crimean Bridge connecting the Russian mainland with Ukraine’s Crimean Peninsula across the Kerch Strait.

The explosives were hidden in a shipment of rolls of plastic film inside the delivery truck. Despite the fact that they were non-combatants and insisted they had no knowledge of the contents of the shipment, the men were tried in a Russian military court in Rostov, charged with carrying out a terrorist attack and illegal arms trafficking, and treated as prisoners of war.

Their names are Artyom and Georgy Azatyan, Oleg Antipov, Aleksandr Bylin, Vladimir Zloba, Dmitry Tyazhelykh, Roman Solomko, and Artur Terchanyan, and they have been on my list of hostages since their arrest. If anyone has information as to whether they were among those released — either this month or in previous exchanges — I would very much like to know.

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In the meantime, they remain among the ranks of political hostages to be remembered on yet another Sunday:

Victims of Greed:

The President, First Lady, and citizens of Venezuela

Europeans Under Threat:

The Nation and the People of Greenland
The people of NATO and EU member states

Prisoners of War:

The 19,500 Kidnapped Ukrainian Children
The People of Ukraine

Immigrant Detainees in Russia:

Migrants from the Central Asian nations of Kazakhstan, Kyrgyzstan,
Tajikistan, Turkmenistan and Uzbekistan

Endangered Exiles:

Mikita Losik
Yulia Navalnaya
Countless Journalists and Other Dissidents

Political Prisoners:

In Afghanistan:

Dennis Coyle (American)

In Azerbaijan:

The “Azerbaijan 7”:
— Farid Mehralizada
— Ulvi Hasanli
— Sevinj Abbasova (Vagifqiai)
— Mahammad Kekalov
— Hafiz Babali
— Nargiz Absalamova
— Elnara Gasimova

In Belarus:

Andrei Chapiuk
Uladzimir Labkovich
Andrzej Poczobut
Marfa Rabkova
Valiantsin Stafanovic
Yuras Zyankovich

In Georgia:

Mzia Amaglobeli

In Russia:

The “Crimea 8”:
— Oleg Antipov
— Artyom Azatyan
— Georgy Azatyan
— Aleksandr Bylin
— Roman Solomko
— Artur Terchanyan
— Dmitry Tyazhelykh
— Vladimir Zloba

James Scott Rhys Anderson (British)
David Barnes (American)
Gordon Black (American)
Hayden Davies (British)
Antonina Favorskaya
Konstantin Gabov
Robert Gilman (American)
Stephen James Hubbard (American)
Sergey Karelin
Timur Kishukov
Vadim Kobzev
Darya Kozyreva
Artyom Kriger
Michael Travis Leake (American)
Aleksei Liptser
Grigory Melkonyants
Nika Novak
Leonid Pshenychnov (in Russian-occupied Crimea)
Nadezhda Rossinskaya (a.k.a. Nadin Geisler)
Sofiane Sehili (French)
Igor Sergunin
Dmitry Shatresov
Robert Shonov
Grigory Skvortsov
Eugene Spector (American)
Joseph Tater (American, disappeared)
Laurent Vinatier
Robert Romanov Woodland (American)

You will not be forgotten.

Just sayin’ . . .

Brendochka
2/8/26