This has been a week without news of the existing or any new political prisoners of the Putin regime.

Yet the people of Ukraine continue to be held hostage by a war they neither invited nor deserved. And there remain more than 20,000 Ukrainian children in Russian custody — many in the Russian-occupied territories of Ukraine, and countless others already “re-homed” in Russia — who are being indoctrinated as loyal Russian “citizens.”

Now it has come to light that some of these abducted children have also been sent to “summer camp” in North Korea.

According to a European Union (EU) document, a new round of sanction is being issued against Russian officials responsible for the transfer of Ukrainian children to the Songdowon International Children’s Camp, which is run by North Korean authorities, and which “participates in organized programs involving the transfer of Ukrainian children from temporarily occupied territories of Ukraine to North Korea.” [RFE/RL, September 5, 2026.]

The EU document says that, while this is supposed to be “a cultural exchange,” in fact the camp “is directly involved in the unlawful transfer, ideological indoctrination, and militarization of Ukrainian children in coordination with the Russian Federation.” [Id.]

Public relations releases describe the camp as “promoting international friendship”; however, it was sanctioned by the U.K. in May of this year for “providing support for the government of Russia’s program for the forced deportation and re-education of Ukrainian children.” [Id.]

Meanwhile, U.S. special envoys Steve Witkoff and Jared Kushner are on an overseas mission, meeting with Russian President Vladimir Putin in Moscow and Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky in Kyiv, in hopes of reopening negotiations to put an end to the nearly five-year-old war. One of Kyiv’s key demands for a settlement has been the return of its abducted children. Let us hope that it remains a principal issue for discussion this week.

*. *. *

And let us also remember those political prisoners still languishing in Putin’s prisons and penal colonies:

Prisoners of War:

The 20,000+ 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:

Pavel “Pasha” Talankin
Mikita Losik
Yulia Navalnaya
Oleg Orlov
Countless Journalists and Other Dissidents

Political Prisoners:

In Afghanistan:

Mahmoud Habibi (Afghan-American)
Paul Overby (American, missing since 2018)

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)
Aleksandr Andreyev
David Barnes (American)
Yevgenia Berkovich
Gordon Black (American)
Hayden Davies (British)
Yury Dmitriyev
Anastasia Dyudyaeva
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
Svitlana Loi (in Ukraine)
Mikhail Loshchinin
“Madame Z” (in Ukraine)
Grigory Melkonyants
Boris Nadezhdin
Nika NovakSvetlana Petriichuk
Leonid Pshenychnov (in Russian-occupied Crimea)
Ilya Remeslo
Nadezhda Rossinskaya (a.k.a. Nadin Geisler)
Lev Schlossberg
Sofiane Sehili (French)
Igor Sergunin
Dmitry Shatresov
Robert Shonov
Grigory Skvortsov
Eugene Spector (American)
Joseph Tater (American, disappeared)
Karina Tsurkan
Arseniy Turbinin (age 18)
Laurent Vinatier
Robert Romanov Woodland (American)

You have not been, and will not be, forgotten. Stay strong.

Just sayin’ . . .

Brendochka
9/6/26