Steven Boyd Saum

Storycatcher. RPCV 🇺🇦. Find me at @stmarysca and @swamiriver.bsky.social | Consular Officer, 🇨🇿 Czech Honorary Consulate Gen. in SF

[Jay Nordlinger @jaynordlinger]

Almost every morning, I wake up to news that Ukraine has bombed military sites in Russia and that Russia has bombed civilians in Ukraine. Rarely is a war so asymmetrical.

I think of a statement that David Petraeus made in 2023: This war is "about as clear a right-versus-wrong as we've seen in our lifetime." https://t.co/IZWzZTZg5K

[PBS News @NewsHour]

The bombing of a theater in Mariupol came to symbolize Ukrainian sacrifice and revealed Russian President Vladimir Putin's true intentions. https://t.co/dXdVpFMDxI

[Terry Virts @AstroTerry]

It is strategic malpractice at its worst that the US and Europe have not outfitted Ukraine with a proper combat air force.

They're surviving on bravery and 80s vintage F16s/ Mirages.

They would win and defeat Russian evil if given the proper equipment.

https://t.co/BzhXJIg0hd

[Garry Kasparov @Kasparov63]

Ukraine is the shield of Poland, Europe, and the free world against Russian aggression that is directly supported by North Korea, Iran, and China. And yet Ukraine still fights alone.

[Sviatlana Tsikhanouskaya @Tsihanouskaya]

Today, we remember the Bosniak men and boys killed in the Srebrenica genocide 31 years ago.

Europe must never forget what happens when hatred is allowed to grow and truth is denied.

Our thoughts are with the families who still grieve and with the survivors who carry this pain.

[Franak Viačorka @franakviacorka]

32 years ago, Lukashenka came to power. I was just six years old.

He has dismantled parliament, media, killed opponents, turned Belarus into Putin’s outpost and a pariah.

This is what happens when democracy fails to defend itself. But I still believe: Belarus will be free.

[Rep. Don Bacon 🇺🇸✈️🏍️⭐️🎖️ @RepDonBacon]

As long as Russia continues its invasion of Ukraine and the bombing of civilians, it should be treated as a pariah state. The IOC decision is a mistake. The Russian people must see that the world rejects Putin’s crimes. https://t.co/GPmlLNV79M

[Garry Kasparov @Kasparov63]

So what changed, IOC? Russia’s terrorist war and invasion of Ukraine, or your bank accounts?

[Dominik Hasek @hasek_dominik]

Putin - ruSSia is now attacking almost only civilian targets. Lots of dead and wounded. This is not just genocide against Ukrainian children, but against all 🇺🇦 civilians. The murderer Putin must be condemned and punished for this, just like the fascists in Nuremberg in 1946.

[Oleksandra Matviichuk @avalaina]

The war has taught me a simple truth. Thousands of things that people consider important in their lives are, in fact, of no value whatsoever. And there are literally just a few things worth living and fighting for.

The Russians have once again killed families with children who were sleeping in their beds this night. They were killed because we do not have the missiles to protect the skies over Ukrainian cities.

Against this backdrop, the fact that in the US the military are rolling out the red carpet for Putin – who has an arrest warrant issued by the Hague and is the world’s biggest child abductor – Or the fact that Poland has decided to scrap Soviet aircraft for scrap metal rather than hand them over to Ukraine for free. Or other news of this sort no longer stirs our emotions. They simply become yet another feature of these despicable times. 

The Ukrainian authorities have appealed for missiles to be urgently supplied from the stockpiles of various countries to defend against Russian attacks. Those of us who survived this night in Kyiv, Sumy, Zaporizhzhia, Kharkiv, Dnipro, Odesa and Kherson – we are all watching closely to see who will merely pay lip service to our resilience, and who will actually do something.

Video Kristina Berdynskykh

[Volodymyr Yermolenko @yermolenko_v]

Václav Havel spoke of the power of the powerless, capable of bringing down tyrannies. Today, I speak of the powerlessness of the powerful—a disease capable of destroying democracies. In modern democracies, people, governments, and entire nations feel helpless, powerless; they have lost faith in themselves, lost faith in the ability to change anything in this world. They possess power but lack belief in it, do not know how to wield it, or are ashamed of it. They have begun to equate the good with weakness. Yet, a weak good will sooner or later become a dead good. It will turn into a graveyard of the good. Today, Ukraine is bringing Europe back to Havel’s formula. Ukraine is showing how weakness can be forged into strength. Can this serve as an inspiration for the rest of the democratic world? That remains a vital question

[Christopher Miller @ChristopherJM]

In his congratulatory message to the US on its 250th anniversary, Zelenskyy says Ukraine "is fighting for its independence, freedom, and our people's right to happiness with much the same hope, the same purpose, and the same determination with which Americans won and defended their own independence."

Zelenskyy also thanks the US for military assistance, name checking Trump and the javelin anti-tank missiles delivered to Kyiv during his first term, but fails to mention the billions in military aid the Biden administration approved for Ukrainian forces, without which there would be no Patriot systems he mentions in his message that are crucial to defending against Russian ballistic missiles.

[The Telegraph @Telegraph]

Russia is planning an armed “provocation” on Polish soil to test Nato’s resolve, the United States has warned.

Polish critical infrastructure could be targeted by missiles and drones or Russian soldiers could cross the border into Nato territory.

🔗: https://t.co/T8CNYztoaw

[Kate from Kharkiv @BohuslavskaKate]

I’m shocked that Russia can crash a building onto sleeping families in a European capital, murdering 30 people, without any meaningful reaction from the world whatsoever.

[Christopher Miller @ChristopherJM]

Morning in Kyiv. It was a quiet night. But news came from Ukrainian authorities that after a day of digging through the rubble and ruin of Russia’s massive missile attack against Kyiv on Thursday 27 people are confirmed to have been killed in the capital; 91 others were injured. Friday has been declared a day of mourning.

[Christopher Miller @ChristopherJM]

Ukraine's foreign minister: "I also want to particularly emphasise that it is immoral to justify Russian atrocities against Ukrainians by saying that Moscow acts in response to Ukraine’s long-range strikes against Russia. In this war, there is an aggressor and a country defending itself under Article 51 of the UN Charter. Russia has no right to make any strikes against Ukraine, while Ukraine has every right to respond, defend from aggressor, and strike any legitimate military targets in Russia."

[Razom for Ukraine 🇺🇸🤝🇺🇦 @razomforukraine]

This is Kyiv this morning. Russia destroyed an apartment building where families lived, killing at least 21 people. Many more are still trapped under the rubble. A bloodthirsty, cruel regime. Show this video to everyone who claims that Putin protects family and Christian values.

[Michael McFaul @McFaul]

Amen. @TimothyDSnyder is right

[S Sebag Montefiore @simonmontefiore]

This is extraordinary

[Volodymyr Zelenskyy / Володимир Зеленський @ZelenskyyUa]

Today, no one on Earth can say that we are not fighting for Crimea or that we have forgotten about Crimea. Every day proves that Ukraine remembers every part of its land, every one of its people, and is truly fighting to ensure justice for our entire state and every integral part of it.

Russia brought its war to Ukraine, starting nowhere other than Crimea, and now, with our actions – medium-range sanctions against the Russian occupier, our long-range sanctions plan, and all other forms of pressure on the aggressor – we are doing everything to force Russia to end the war and restore justice. And it is Crimea that is at the center of this policy of ensuring justice. Russia turned Crimea into a launchpad for aggressive operations against other parts of our country and against other nations. For a very long time, Russia has tried to normalize its war – to make Ukraine, all of Europe, and the world accept that its aggression supposedly cannot be stopped and that justice supposedly cannot be restored.

Today, Ukraine is depriving Russia of this launchpad and drawing a line under its attempts to normalize war. And in doing so, we remember that justice for Ukraine also means justice for the Crimean Tatar people – a people forced to endure deportation and decades of oppression, a people who were able to return to their homeland, but whose home the Russians tried to steal again, a people who have preserved their vitality and remain an inseparable part of our society.

Today, as we honor the blue banner with the golden tamğa – this proud flag that unites the entire Crimean Tatar people – we affirm that Ukraine is fighting for itself and all its lands, defending justice for itself and all its people – for everyone who calls Ukraine and our Crimea their home. We must stop Russian aggression. We must bring freedom back to all those who are currently in Russian captivity. We must guarantee security and a reliable peace for the entirety of our state and all our people.

Qırımtatar Milliy Bayraq künü hayırlı olsun!

Glory to Ukraine!