It is such a thrill to have good news for a change.

The last citizens of Oleshky in the Kherson region of Ukraine — those who have chosen to leave — have now been evacuated. Those who decided to stay have at last received the life-saving humanitarian aid they have needed so desperately for so long.

Under a mutually-agreed temporary ceasefire, the roads were cleared of Russian mines, aid and buses were brought in, and two convoys departed without incident. Four buses carried people who, for whatever reason, wished to go to Russia; 17 buses transported those who chose to remain in Ukraine.

Those 17 buses traveled through Russian-occupied Crimea to Anapa, Russia; from there, the passengers were flown to Gomel, Belarus, where they were transferred to other buses and driven across the border to Chernihiv, Ukraine.

Needless to say, they were welcomed warmly and will be sheltered and cared for while permanent arrangements are finalized.

And so we have been able to remove hundreds of people from our list. I don’t know their individual names, but that doesn’t matter. They have survived four and a half years of unimaginable torture, and are now in safe hands.

*. *. *

But, as always on Sunday, we again pay tribute to those political hostages still being held in Putin’s prisons:

Prisoners of War:

The 20,000+ Kidnapped Ukrainian Children
The People of Ukraine
The 2,000 Starving Citizens of Oleshky

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
Aleksandr Antonov (Russian/Ukrainian/American)
David Barnes (American)
Yevgenia Berkovich
Gordon Black (American)
Hayden Davies (British)
Yury Dmitriyev
Anastasia Dyudyaeva
Antonina Favorskaya
Konstantin Gabov
Olga Jezler (Russian/American)
Sergey Karelin
Andre Khachaturian (Armenian/American)
Timur Kishukov
Vadim Kobzev
Darya Kozyreva
Artyom Kriger
Aleksandr Kynev
Michael Travis Leake (American)
Aleksei Liptser
Svitlana Loi (in Ukraine)
Mikhail Loshchinin
“Madame Z” (in Ukraine)
Grigory Melkonyants
Dmitry Morozov
Boris Nadezhdin
Nika Novak
Svetlana Petriichuk
Leonid Pshenychnov (in Russian-occupied Crimea)
Ilya Remeslo
Nadezhda Rossinskaya (a.k.a. Nadin Geisler)
Lev Schlossberg
Daniel Schneider
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)
Chuck Zimmerman

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

Just sayin’ . . .

Brendochka
11/1/26