To this kind of thing — war crimes, atrocities — I think it’s important not to get numb:

Russia fired more than 20 cruise missiles and two drones at Ukraine early Friday, killing at least 23 people, almost all of them when two missiles slammed into an apartment building in a terrifying nighttime attack, officials said. Three children were among the dead.

For that report, go here.

• I also think it important to see faces — the faces of individuals, dead and alive — and also to learn names. Otherwise, war crimes and crimes against humanity are just abstractions. (“The death of one man is a tragedy. The death of a million is a statistic.”)

• The below is from Oleksandra Matviichuk, the executive director of the Center for Civil Liberties, in Kyiv, which shared the Nobel Peace Prize last year. (I interviewed Matviichuk in October, a few days before the prize was announced — go here.)

• Says a report,

Ukraine’s air force claimed Saturday to have downed a Russian hypersonic missile over Kyiv using newly acquired American Patriot defense systems, the first known time the country has been able to intercept one of Moscow’s most modern missiles.

In notes on Ukraine a week and a half ago, I wrote,

Missile defense is one of the most important things in the world. Putin’s Russia is a terror state, firing at innocent civilians day after day. People need protection.

I think Americans can take satisfaction in providing Patriot missiles to the Ukrainians — missiles that give them a fighting chance to avoid being murdered in Russian bombing. I think that Americans can take satisfaction in the overall help we are rendering to the Ukrainians, as they fight to stave off invasion and subjugation. It is a momentous freedom struggle, in which the U.S. interest is involved.

Many Americans are opposed to our aid, of course. Many are outright on the other side — entirely unblushing about it. But polls suggest that a majority of Americans is still with the Ukrainians, at least for now.

• Ukraine’s president, Volodymyr Zelensky, paid a visit to Finland, the newest member of NATO. “Ukraine and Finland, two brave nations,” wrote Bill Kristol. He then quoted Winston Churchill, in 1940: “Only Finland — superb, nay, sublime, in the jaws of peril — Finland shows what free men can do. The service rendered by Finland to mankind is magnificent.”

Yes. Last year, I sat down with Lou Cannon, the veteran American political journalist. An excerpt from my piece:

In Reno, the Cannons had a friend who was Finnish. In November 1939, the Soviet Union invaded Finland. Lou was six. And owing to the family friend, he was very interested in the war, which would be known as the “Winter War.” He is reminded of that war by today’s war. “I follow the twists and turns of the invasion of Ukraine obsessively,” he says. “Normal people are going to work, and then their houses are destroyed or their children are killed. That gets you pretty damn concerned, if you’re a small-d democrat.”

It does.

• Let me recommend a piece by Dalibor Roháč, published at American Purpose:

For the better part of the last two centuries, Central and Eastern Europeans had little control over their geopolitical destinies. Not anymore. The heroism of Ukrainians in defense of their country has amplified Ukraine’s voice on the global stage and helped build an international coalition to support the country militarily and financially throughout the war. Ukraine’s post-communist neighbors should take note: They are no longer expected to “suffer what they must,” while the strong do what they can — quite the contrary.

Pivotal (or potentially so).

• A column by Max Boot is headed “How a tech executive uses the ‘Silicon Valley playbook’ to equip Ukraine.” That executive is Andrey Liscovich, and he is well worth getting to know. When the history of this period is written, men and women such as Liscovich will have a place — a place of honor.

• Senator Ben Cardin (D., Md.) is retiring. That is a loss, in public life. Cardin has been the chairman of the U.S. Helsinki Commission. His Republican counterpart — the ranking member — has been Roger Wicker (Miss.). They have been staunch in support of freedom, democracy, and human rights. Wicker is running for reelection — a relief.

As I noted last week, the Kremlin has banned the Moscow Helsinki Group. It was established by Andrei Sakharov, Yelena Bonner, Yury Orlov, and sterling others — heroes of mine, and of many, back then.

• Spotted in Houston:

Many homes in Houston — and throughout these United States — display the Ukrainian flag. A lot of people snort at this. Others of us think it is right and noble to express solidarity with people under siege, fighting for their lives — fighting for the very right of their country to exist. As for the snorters, well . . . they have existed in all periods and all conflicts, and always will.