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It is nearly impossible to keep up with the news relating to Ukraine, the war, ideas about how to end the war, and to my mind, the fantasies regarding “negotiations.”
Why do I reference negotiation fantasies? For many reasons the first being that whatever is or might be “negotiated” with Russia will become like a snapshot in time that will fade away as soon as Russia finds doing so in its demonic best interests. All the other reasons flow from the first including but not limited to – Russia rebuilding to continue and expand its war with the United States and the West, the complete destruction of Ukraine, lull Washington and the weak of old Europe into complacency, etc.
Right now, Washington and the West have all the leverage and they have Ukraine ready to defeat Russia if only they were given what they need to accomplish the task. And, in truth, the only way Russia will be stopped, and genuine peace can be achieved is if Russia is defeated and made to account for its genocidal aggression. Other “ends” to the war are in the mid-to-long term fanciful.
Below you will find a Shankar Narayan article discussing the situation Putin is finding himself in – with my parenthetical comments – followed by an important Wall Street Journal report on Russia’s treatment of Ukrainian prisoners of war.
Putin is Scared
There is a ton of evidence pointing in that direction
Earlier today, an undersea fiber optic cable connecting Sweden and Latvia was damaged. “External influence,” stated the Prime Minister of Latvia. The world knows exactly what type of ‘external influence’ regularly rips apart undersea cables in the Gulf of Finland and the Baltic Sea.
It is commonly known as Kremlin influence. Latvia and Sweden are still investigating the incident, as there were many vessels in the area. It might be either tomorrow or later before we get the full details of the ship and the crew involved in the attack.
The entire region has been on high alert since an oil tanker, went on an undersea cable-cutting spree on December 25, 2024. The vessel was immediately seized by the Finnish coast guard and a local court ordered that the oil tanker “Eagle S” remain impounded as investigations continue. The ship’s owner and crew are likely facing one of the longest years of their lives.
Post-attack, on January 14, 2025, NATO launched its Baltic Sentry Program, a maritime surveillance initiative aimed at deterring threats to critical undersea infrastructure in the Baltic Sea. NATO has deployed frigates, maritime patrol aircraft, and naval drones to enhance surveillance in the region.
This area is now monitored 24/7
Thus, the odds are, if you commit sabotage, you will be arrested, and your ship will be impounded. It’s almost a suicide mission to execute any sabotage in the Gulf of Finland and the Baltic Sea. And yet, the Kremlin found a willing captain to cut an undersea fiber optic cable between Latvia and Sweden.
I don’t think any amount of money would have convinced the captain to agree to a suicide mission. That sounds a lot like coercion. The threat level must have been so high that they chose to get arrested.
Consider the desperation the Kremlin must feel to do this after the Eagle S was impounded by Finland four weeks ago.
If NATO begins rigorously inspecting every ship traversing EU waters for valid insurance documents, the Kremlin might as well wave farewell to its Dark Sea fleet that transports oil globally. This stringent enforcement would compel all vessels to carry legitimate insurance, binding them to sell oil below the EU’s price cap of 60 euros per barrel. Such a move would slash Russia’s oil revenues by nearly 20%.
The Kremlin is counting pennies; that’s how bad their economic situation is, but they still chose to risk their Dark Sea fleet. This clearly screams of desperation. The Kremlin has completely run out of ideas. There is no other way to interpret what happened earlier today. Things get even worse when we consider what Putin did yesterday.
After relentless hounding from Donald Trump and his administration, taunting the Kremlin about dropping the oil price cap to $45, the Kremlin has finally unveiled its strategic response to this escalating threat.
Putin’s plan? He’s going to suck up to Donald Trump, and he’s going to do it in the most public way possible. Yep, that’s their strategy. I’ve seen plenty of political suck-ups in my time. Senator Ted Cruz’s fawning over Trump was top-tier for ages. But now, we’ve got a new world record holder — Vladimir Putin.
I cannot but agree with him that if he had been president, if his victory had not been stolen from him in 2020, then perhaps there would not have been the crisis in Ukraine that arose in 2022- Vladimir Putin told Russian state media.
After Trump threatened Putin with additional sanctions and criticized his governance, saying it’s “no way to run a country,” the Kremlin was caught off guard. Before they could calibrate a response, the ultranationalist community and state media had already spread Trump’s threats across the nation, further complicating Putin’s position. Now, Putin is publicly praising Trump, claiming the war would never have happened under Trump’s presidency. [Of course, that entire narrative is false. Russia invaded Ukraine in 2014, seized Crimea and significant territory in Donbas – the war crimes began, killings, rapes, torture and the abduction of Ukrainian children began. All this before Trump’s first term. Russia was illegally occupying Ukrainian territory and committing those crimes while Trump was president. Perhaps Russia would not have launched the full-scale invasion, but we will never know. RAM]
Interestingly, since Trump assumed office, Ukraine has not ceased its assaults on Russian assets, maintaining an intense pace. Just yesterday, Ukraine targeted Russia’s third largest refinery, the Ryazan oil refinery, a critical facility that processed almost 5% of Russia’s refining capacity in 2024.
Ukraine is not just stepping up the frequency of attacks but also targeting more valuable assets since Trump’s inauguration. Yet, there’s been no protest from Trump’s administration. They are not even talking about Ukraine. They are only talking about Russia.
It’s also striking that since Trump took office, Putin has held back on major missile strikes against Kyiv — nearly a week has passed without retaliation, despite Ukraine’s consistent attacks on their refineries.
Putin seems lost, unsure of how to respond, especially as Trump seeks negotiations. Trump wants Putin to propose terms, but if Putin does and Trump rejects them — Putin will be in a whole lot of trouble.
Trump’s unpredictability only adds to the tension. If he demands that Putin keep Crimea but relinquish everything else, Putin has no response whatsoever. He can’t outright refuse and continue the war without facing consequences. [I have no clear view as to what Trump might find acceptable but based upon all the different things he has said it would appear he has no concept of East European history, nor a genuine grasp of the enemy Ukraine and he face. Any “peace” that allows Russia to maintain any of Ukraine’s sovereign territory would be rewarding the aggressor and penalizing the victim. That would show Russia and the world a United States unworthy of the role of “leader of the free world” and unwilling to act decisively in our vital national security interests. RAM]
Trump has made it clear: if his demands aren’t met, he will further lower the oil price cap, impose more sanctions, and increase arms supplies to Ukraine. Putin appears cornered, with no attractive options for starting negotiations.
He is visibly frightened, and his exit doors are jammed. [I cannot agree until I know Trump’s strategic objectives. Simply ending the fighting and giving Russia anything better than a clear defeat, an accounting for its war crimes, reparations for its barbaric destruction of Ukraine, and the return of all prisoners of war and all abducted children is rewarding unprovoked war making and setting the stage for worst things to come. We appear to be at a defining moment. The actual leverage is all with the West should it realize, it must allow Ukraine to defeat Russia. Not taking full advantage of that leverage would be a historic failure. RAM]
Any talk of ending Russia’s unprovoked war must address Russian war crimes and genocide.
Far too little has been said about both and the world – and eventually the Russian people need to face the reality of their culpability and be held accountable.
The Wall Street Journal has done a good job making the article below a front-page feature on Thursday, January 23. More recently, not included here, are solid reports of Russians murdering Ukrainian prisoners.
The Wall Street Journal
Putin’s Torturers Couldn’t Break These Ukrainian Prisoners
Former POWs detail cruel methods, including beatings and electric shocks from a field telephone known as ‘a call to Putin’
By Oksana Grytsenko | Photographs by Serhii Korovayny for WSJ | Jan. 20, 2025 11:00 pm ET
KYIV, Ukraine—Twenty-six Ukrainian prisoners of war sat naked on a cold stone floor, their legs crossed, heads bowed and hands clasped behind their backs.
The fresh arrivals at a jail in the Russian border city of Kursk were undergoing a routine and brutal procedure known as priyomka, or admission.
“You,” a Russian guard singled out Ukrainian Marine Capt. Yulian Pylypey after spotting a large tattoo of a trident, Ukraine’s national symbol, on his right leg. “Come with me.”
Six Russian guards dragged Pylypey to an interrogation room, threw him to the floor and kicked him repeatedly. Then the questioning began, interspersed with beatings using rubber truncheons and wooden hammers, and shocks from stun guns, Pylypey later recalled.
After several hours of violent interrogation, the guards dragged his limp and bruised body to a cell and dropped it on the floor. Pylypey couldn’t walk for several days and urinated blood.
The priyomka in Kursk was an early stage in an ordeal that lasted 2½ years before Pylypey was exchanged—torments that reflect the treatment that Russian prison guards mete out systematically to tens of thousands of Ukrainian prisoners.
The Wall Street Journal spoke with several former prisoners of war, whose accounts echo reports from human-rights groups, Ukrainian officials and the United Nations, which conducted extensive interviews with former detainees.
A United Nations report last year noted 38 prisons where beatings like those Pylypey suffered, as well as sexual violence and use of dogs to attack prisoners, took place. Torture, the report concluded, is “widespread and systematic.” Kyiv authorities say up to 200 Ukrainian prisoners have died in captivity. Hundreds who have been exchanged returned emaciated and with physical and mental wounds.
The Kremlin and Russia’s Federal Penitentiary Service didn’t respond to requests for comment.
Russia’s brutal treatment of Ukrainian prisoners is the latest chapter in centuries of violence against Ukrainians who refuse to accept Russian rule, from the torture and murder of insurgents and cultural figures fighting for independence to a forced famine that killed millions in the 1930s.
The abuse, prisoners and human-rights defenders said, seeks to break Ukrainians’ will and extract false confessions to affirm the Russian view that precipitated the war: that true Ukrainians are loyal to Russia, while anyone opposed to Moscow is a dangerous deviant.
From the start of his ordeal, Pylypey steeled himself for survival during repeated torture sessions.
“You close your eyes,” said the 29-year-old. “Your body stays there, but your mind goes to the person you love, and you’re flying.”
Capture
Pylypey was captured in mid-April 2022 as Russian forces seized Mariupol, the eastern city he was defending. He and seven of his men were seeking to escape when they were ambushed by the Russian Federal Security Service, or FSB. During the capture, a Russian officer stripped off Pylypey’s smartwatch, calling it the spoils of war.
Pylypey and his men were sent to Olenivka prison in occupied eastern Ukraine, where guards soon stole his wedding ring.
Then came a morale boost from a familiar voice: “Hey buddy, I can’t believe it. I was sure you were dead.” It was his fellow Marine Capt. Serhiy Taraniuk, who had also been captured near Mariupol.
Russia was seeking to prove that Ukrainian soldiers in Mariupol, like Russians around Kyiv, had slaughtered civilians. Pylypey said he received special attention because he had spent 14 months training in the U.S., enough for FSB interrogators to falsely accuse him of being hired by the Central Intelligence Agency and trained to kill Russians.
Taraniuk said he was also accused, without basis, of ordering the murder of civilians and interrogated with a torture method known as “a call to Putin” using a Soviet-era field telephone. Investigators attached the wires of the battery-powered communications device, which is about the size of a handbag, to his feet, hands and genitals and delivered electric shocks by turning the phone’s dial.
“When they are doing this, you don’t even understand what they want you to say,” said Taraniuk, now 30 years old.
No news
Ukrainian prisoners are shuttled between facilities in occupied Ukraine and Russia, keeping them off balance and making their location hard to track for relatives and Ukrainian authorities.
Pylypey went from Olenivka to Taganrog, a Russian city near the border with Ukraine, then another Russian jail before being taken to Kursk, where he spent nearly two years. That was followed by another stint elsewhere in Russia before his release in September. Taraniuk was moved to Taganrog then back and forth between Russia and occupied Ukrainian cities.
One of the first things a prisoner loses is a sense of time. Pylypey soon learned to estimate it from the sun’s position or by glancing at guards’ watches.
Taraniuk, who spent several months in solitary confinement without a window, measured time by placing cups under a dripping water tap. Three full cups of water meant it was time for dinner.
In Olenivka, Taraniuk managed a quick call to his girlfriend on another inmate’s contraband phone. Pylypey worried his family would think he was dead.
In April 2023, one year after he was captured, Pylypey unexpectedly received a letter from home and caught the scent of his wife’s perfume when he opened it. He wept silently on his bunk for a half-hour. Later, he wrote back with a saying invoking the strength of Ukrainian warriors: “The Cossack spirit lives forever.”
Hunger
One day in December 2023, Pylypey spotted another prisoner in his cell slumping to one side. The middle-aged man, whose name was Borys, had seen his weight drop from around 300 pounds to 175.
Pylypey and another prisoner caught Borys and, after guards opened the cell door, carried him to a daybed in the corridor. He held Borys’s hand as the man weakly called his name, waiting more than an hour for medical assistance. Borys died within days.
Other prisoners would collapse from exhaustion when forced to leave their cells for inspections. Pylypey himself lost 44 pounds during captivity. He often combined all his three daily food portions into one to have a full stomach at least sometimes.
Some guards, particularly military veterans, showed some humanity, giving the prisoners soap and candies and urging them to hang on for a prisoner exchange. Pylypey said some Russian inmates took pity on Ukrainians, leaving books on a windowsill near their cells. “We are sorry for you, guys,” one of them told Pylypey.
Survival
During a random check early last year, a guard forced Pylypey to spread his legs and kicked his inner thigh. The following day, a detective pressed him to confess to ordering civilian killings while beating him on the injured leg. Pylypey refused.
In the following weeks, Pylypey’s knee swelled, and his leg developed a large lump. Each step caused searing pain. Guards also tried unsuccessfully to burn off Pylypey’s Ukrainian trident tattoo with a stun gun.
Pylypey's wife, Khristyna, kept in touch with the imprisoned soldier by letter.
Taraniuk recalls that the Russians hung him by his legs and beat his chest and back. They placed a plastic bag over his head to suffocate him. They also tortured soldiers from his unit, trying to force them to sign accusations that Taraniuk had ordered them to kill civilians. Sleep deprivation was common.
Taraniuk resisted for more than two years until, exhausted by torture and told he could be exchanged after conviction, he decided to sign whatever the Russians wanted. They sentenced him to 29 years in prison for allegedly killing civilians in Mariupol.
Ways out
Pylypey noticed how some prisoners lost their grip on reality. One sat silently for days, hugging his knees and staring in one direction. Another washed the cell day and night. Pylypey tried to cheer them up, but struggled to maintain his own spirits.
“I called it the period of my reprogramming,” he said.
Prisoners bonded. Pylypey and his cellmates caught a mouse and made it their pet, sharing their meager food with it and hiding it from guards under the floor.
Pylypey taught the other prisoners English and hand-to-hand combat. He constantly daydreamed about traveling with his wife. “I traveled the entire world with her in my mind,” he said.
Taraniuk, now living in the Black Sea city of Mykolaiv, still suffers physical after-effects from his incarceration.
Taraniuk recalled a prisoner who hanged himself on an iron grate in the cell next to his own. After that, guards ordered everyone to remain in their beds the whole night with their hands above their blankets.
The Russians offered another way out: to take Russian passports and join a Russian battalion formed of Ukrainian former prisoners.
The beginning of last year was one of the toughest times for Pylypey, as the Russians piled on the pressure for a false confession. By late February, he considered giving up and telling the Russians what they wanted.
Then he received a second letter from home. “The only thing I’m asking you is just to hold on,” his wife wrote.
He did, but one day in September, he was brought to an interrogation room with a court verdict on a table sentencing him to 20 years in prison for killing civilians and other war crimes. The trial had taken place without him.
Release
The next day, guards told Pylypey to gather his belongings. They placed a sack over his head and transported him, first by car and then by train, to an unknown destination. Expecting to arrive at a new prison, he was surprised to find himself on a civilian bus in Belarus. He felt a hand on his shoulder and turned to see Taraniuk.
“Hey buddy, this is the prisoner exchange,” Taraniuk said. They embraced.
As they crossed into Ukraine on foot, a group of Russian prisoners walking in the opposite direction asked whether they had been tortured. The Ukrainians passed by in silence.
A few days after his release, Pylypey stood under a summer downpour for the first time in years, soaking in smells and sounds he had almost forgotten. “Now I know that freedom has its smell,” he said.
Pylypey learned he had received an award for courage. Taraniuk married his girlfriend. But the men don’t celebrate birthdays or weddings while more than half of their units remain in captivity.
Taraniuk suffers from headaches and partial hearing loss. Pylypey limps because of the injury to his right leg. He is planning to fulfill a promise he made to himself while in captivity: to extend the Ukrainian trident tattoo with a portrait of Kyivan Prince Sviatoslav the Brave.
His sister has prepared a sketch incorporating a phrase attributed to the medieval leader: “We shall not disgrace our native land. For the dead seek no shame.”
ROBERT MCCONNELL
Co-Founder, U.S.-Ukraine Foundation
Director of External Affairs, Friends of Ukraine Network
The introduction and parenthetical comments are Mr. McConnell’s and do not necessarily represent the views of the U.S.-Ukraine Foundation or those of the Friends of Ukraine Network (FOUN).