A piece of news to be aware of — something not to be numb to: “Thousands of Ukrainian civilians are being held in Russian prisons. Russia plans to build many more.” The report, from the Associated Press, begins,

The Ukrainian civilians woke long before dawn in the bitter cold, lined up for the single toilet and were loaded at gunpoint into the livestock trailer. They spent the next 12 hours or more digging trenches on the front lines for Russian soldiers.

. . . By the end of the day, their hands curled into icy claws.

Nearby, in the occupied region of Zaporizhzhia, other Ukrainian civilians dug mass graves into the frozen ground for fellow prisoners who had not survived. One man who refused to dig was shot on the spot — yet another body for the grave.

Have no illusions about what Russian forces are doing to Ukrainians.

• A Republican congressman, Matt Gaetz, says that Russia, rather than Ukraine, ought to be invited to join NATO. See it here.

• Another AP report is headed, “Desperate Ukrainians take long and uncertain journey to escape Russian occupation.” Can you imagine what you would do, if you were in their shoes?

• At this link is a picture not easy to look at — but illustrative of what Ukrainians are enduring.

• Nicholas Kristof wrote a column headed, “They’re Ready to Fight Again, on Artificial Legs.” He begins,

The Superhumans Center is full of war amputees learning to walk on artificial limbs or smoking cigarettes clutched in prosthetic fingers.

Yet this philanthropically supported hospital for wounded Ukrainians is not antiseptically depressing, as hospitals often are. Perhaps that’s because of the admiration that Ukrainians feel for these veterans, leading them to carry their stumps with pride — and to plan a return to the front with artificial arms and legs.

I admire these people a great deal. Am, in fact, in awe of their courage, their heroism.

• It has now been 500 days — 500 days since Putin’s Russia launched its all-out assault on Ukraine. The Ukrainians are still standing, which is remarkable. They are fighting and dying for their freedom, their independence, their country.

An AP report begins,

Ukrainian president Volodymyr Zelensky marked the 500th day of the war Saturday by hailing the country’s soldiers in a video from a Black Sea island that became the symbol of Ukraine’s resilience in the face of the Russian invasion.

Indeed. “Russian warship, go f*** yourself.”

The nationalists among us, as much as anyone, ought to be inspired by what the Ukrainians are doing: fighting for their national survival, trying to fend off a behemoth neighbor that seeks to re-subjugate them.

You would think, right?

And yet there is a great deal of sympathy for Putin. When I was growing up, many people on the left were defensive, if not outright supportive, of Castro’s Cuba. They constantly made excuses for that dictatorship and sneered at its opponents. So it is with many on the right today, concerning Russia.

Some of us have a terrible sense of déjà vu.

• Nicholas Daniloff, a correspondent for U.S. News & World Report, was taken hostage by the Kremlin in 1986. He was in prison for 13 days. Evan Gershkovich, a correspondent for the Wall Street Journal, was taken hostage back in March. He has now been in prison for more than a hundred days.

According to reports, the Biden administration is looking to swap for him. In any event, no one should be under any illusion about the nature of Putin’s regime.

• Mitch McConnell is a throwback of a Republican — for which, all honor to him:

Marjorie Taylor Greene is a more modern Republican. Here she is calling for the withdrawal of the United States from NATO:

In all likelihood, Greene will be in politics long after McConnell has passed from the scene. This week, Speaker Kevin McCarthy said, “I think Marjorie Taylor Greene is one of the best members we have, I think she’s the one of the most conservative members and one of the strongest legislators.”

There you go. The word “conservative” has been warped out of recognition.

• Cornel West is running for president. He sounds like Robert F. Kennedy Jr. and other candidates — as when he says, “Let us not be deceived: NATO is an expanding instrument of U.S. global power that provoked Russia into a criminal invasion and occupation of Ukraine.” Well, at least he said “criminal.”

Last year, Donald Trump blamed the leaders of the United States for Putin’s invasion. (“They always blame America first,” said Jeane Kirkpatrick in 1984, and not about Republicans.) “They actually taunted him, if you really look at it,” Trump said. “Our country, and our so-called leadership, taunted Putin. And, I would listen — I’d say, ‘You know, they’re almost forcing him to go in, with what they’re saying.’”

Well, at least he said “almost.”

“Moral equivalence” was a constant of the Cold War, and it is back with a vengeance, though this time from a strange direction. Jonah Goldberg touched on this two days ago with a column headed “Moral Equivalence vs. Moral Leadership.”

• The BBC has published a report: “Twitter Blue accounts fuel Ukraine War misinformation.” This is a time that cries for clarity: factual, moral, etc.

Will Ukraine survive? I don’t know. I do know it ought to. I also know that Russia’s brutalization of that country is evil. When Reagan used the word “evil,” a lot of people got the heebie-jeebies. (“The worst presidential speech in American history” — Henry Steele Commager.) It was right then, and is right now.