People often shrink from the word “evil.” It is the strongest of all condemnatory words. When Reagan said “evil empire,” back in 1983, a lot of people got the shakes. But sometimes only the word “evil” will do. Consider this headline: “Rescuers are braving snipers as they rush to ferry Ukrainians from Russia-occupied flood zones.” (The article is here.)

• A video, some news, circulated by Tymofiy Mylovanov, the president of the Kyiv School of Economics. (I met him last week.) “Police dig out a woman with [their] bare hands after a missile hits her apartment.”

• Over the years, I’ve written about Sudanese, Rohingyas, Uyghurs, others. The murder is bad, yes. The mass murder. But somehow, the sexual violence — mass sexual violence — is harder to bear. One’s instinct is to turn away from it. But turn away from it, we must not do.

From the Telegraph: “Since Russia’s soldiers first stormed Ukraine, women have been gang-raped, men castrated, children sexually abused, and civilians forced to parade naked in the streets, according to the United Nations.” (Article here.)

From the Times: “She thought she was unshockable, then two castrated Ukrainian soldiers arrived.” (Article here.)

I don’t expect people to read these articles; I don’t blame them if they don’t. But I think people should be aware of the atrocities — the evil — committed by Russian forces against the Ukrainian people. And I think people who support or make excuses for Putin are abhorrent.

• It is important to know the names, and maybe faces, of the victims — at least some of them. Otherwise, the victims are abstractions or statistics.

Another pairing:

• The name “Yesypenko” is one to know. Here is a report by Ellen Bork, published by the George W. Bush Presidential Center:

Kateryna Yesypenko visited Washington, D.C., in mid-May seeking to raise awareness about her husband Vladyslav, a Radio Free Europe/Radio Liberty freelance reporter in Ukraine’s Crimean peninsula, which Russia illegally annexed in 2014. He was arrested by Russian authorities there in March 2021, in retaliation for his reports on life under occupation.

For the article in full, go here.

• Have a look at this statement by Illia Ponomarenko, after which I would like to make a point:

I’ll tell you something I learned from David Pryce-Jones, Paul Hollander, and others: To the antisemite, the Jew is both the Communist revolutionary and the rapacious capitalist. To the anti-American, the American is both an insular navel-gazer and a world-meddler. Well, to the anti-Ukrainian, or the Putin apologist, the Ukrainian is both pathetic Russian cousin and wily, peace-disturbing brute.

This is a way in which people satisfy their psychological needs.

• Vladimir Kara-Murza is a Russian journalist, historian, politician, and prisoner of conscience. The Kremlin sentenced him to 25 years in prison for “high treason.” Kara-Murza had criticized the assault on Ukraine. Canada has granted him honorary citizenship — in the hope of helping keep him alive. To read an article on this, go here.

Full of admiration for what the Canadians have done.

• Hillel Neuer, the executive director of U.N. Watch, reminds us of a Russian political prisoner who has been there a long, long time:

• A statement from the United States Holocaust Museum:

• From Radio Free Europe / Radio Liberty, a headline: “Russia’s Net Tightens Around Dissidents Sheltering In Kyrgyzstan.” The article says,

The arrests come amid signs of tightening cooperation between Bishkek and Moscow, which according to Kyrgyzstan’s Interior Ministry now extends to the use of Chinese-manufactured facial-recognition systems installed in Bishkek and other Kyrgyz cities.

Years ago, people had a debate, or a discussion: Whom would the new technologies benefit more? Dissidents, democracy activists, freedom fighters? Or dictatorships? I wrote a piece about this once. (Can’t find it.) The consensus was: The new technologies will be a bonanza for dissidents. Yes, dictatorships will use the new tools. But the advantage goes to the dissidents.

Today, I do not think this is true. Think of Xinjiang (where the Uyghurs live, and suffer, and die). The surveillance state. Orwellianism appears to flourish.

• “Bulgaria Accuses Russian Ambassador To Sofia Of Spreading ‘Kremlin Propaganda.’” (Article here.) Well, in fairness, that’s her job.

• There is a Boris Nemtsov Foundation, which gives a Boris Nemtsov Award. Nemtsov, you will remember, was the leader of the Russian political opposition to Putin. He was murdered in February 2015 within sight of the Kremlin. As this article reports, the award this year was given to five Russian political prisoners, who were arrested for speaking out against Putin’s war on Ukraine. They are Maria Ponomarenko, Nikita Tushkanov, Mikhail Simonov, Maksim Lypkan, and Vladimir Rumyantsev. (I wrote about two of those people last April, here.)

Zhanna Nemtsova, Nemtsov’s daughter, said, “If there is a word to describe all these people, it would be ‘conscience.’ And the second word, surely, would be ‘courage.’”

God bless them all.