Sleepwalking Through Humanity’s Evolution

Seeds of Resistance Sown in the Breadbasket of Europe Grow to Free the World

“Ukraine has always aspired to be free.”

 -  Voltaire, History of Charles XII, King of Sweden (1731)

French artist Louis Picard’s 1900 painting of Ira Aldridge and Taras Shevchenko.

Day comes and goes, night comes and goes... 
Sinking your head in hands clasped tight, 
You wonder why there still comes no 
Apostle of wisdom, truth and right.

-  Taras Shevchenko

The most oppressive and cruel circumstances birth humanity’s giants; creative thought leaders, artists, poets, writers, and other influencers of public opinion, whose voices inspire, and actions move political mountains, imaginations so bold and pure, and driven by courage to speak truth to power, as they dare push the world toward a future of peace, justice, and freedom. In times of darkness, a spark of inconvenient truths can ignite an awakening so bright, the most fearsome tyrants tremble and retaliate to extinguish it. One such internationally celebrated force of light in history is the late Taras Shevchenko, a Ukrainian artistic genius whose paintings, poetry, theatrical works, and novellas shaped the Ukrainian language, and captured Ukraine’s history and culture so powerfully, he is credited with playing a pivotal role in the abolishment of serfdom and Ukraine’s movement of independence from Imperial Russia. Shevchenko’s spirit connects and inspires Ukrainians around the world to this day, and to understand him, is to understand Ukraine. Earlier this month marked the 208th birthday of Shevchenko, who was born on the 9 of March in 1814 and died the day after his 47th birthday.

Shevchenko was born into a family of serf peasants and rose as a champion of independence for serfs and Ukraine; a mark on history that landed him in exile. Born in a small Ukrainian village near the Dnieper River, outside of Kyiv, he was orphaned and homeless by the age of eleven when his last surviving parent, his father, died from inhuman conditions of forced labor. He was taken in by a master, an official of the Russian Imperial military who tried to crush his spirit, but who was also intrigued by the young boy’s natural talents for drawing and painting, including religious icons. He was whipped and treated cruelly but could not be beaten into submission, and even ran away once. His master rid himself of the young artist when his son inherited ownership of Shevchenko.

Shevchenko’s new owner made him a valet, providing opportunity for travel, including to Saint Petersburg.  In the vibrant city known as “Russia’s window to Europe,” the master realized he could not control Shevchenko and that whatever force he used to oppress him, was matched by an equal force of resistance, a law of physics that also applies to defeating tyrants; exhausting, exposing, and seizing an oppressor’s power through whatever means necessary. The master experienced Shevchenko’s spirit of resistance on a small scale and decided it was enough of a burden that he chose to exploit Shevchenko’s artistic talents instead and made himself a small fortune in the process. In Saint Petersburg, he provided Shevchenko with access to formal training as an artist, which opened a world of opportunity and lay the road to freedom.

The colorful community of artists, actors, and poets in St. Petersburg embraced Shevchenko, recognizing his unique artistic genius.  While studying art, he trained in a diversity of techniques. He also met and befriended many of Imperial Russia’s most influential cultural figures, including his mentor, the famous professor and painter Karl Briullov who helped Shevchenko by painting and auctioning a portrait of Vasily Zhukovsky, their common friend, a famous Russian poet and influential literary figure who is credited with introducing the Romantic movement to Russia and served as a high level advisor in the Romanov court, and as a tutor to the Grand Duchess Alexandra Feodorovna and her son Alexander II, the future Tsar. Bruillov donated all the proceeds raised from the sale - two-and-a-half thousand rubbles – to buy twenty-four-year-old Shevchenko his freedom.  Several other well-known Russian famous artists and poets, including Zhukovsky, pitched in to purchase the painting at the price needed to help their good friend break the chains of serfdom. Shevchenko paid his master and received a certificate of freedom in the spring of 1838.

The price to purchase Shevchenko his freedom was significant. Around that period, one hundred rubles was enough to purchase ten log cabins, so the amount he paid could have bought two-hundred-and-fifty, an entire village. It was equivalent to roughly $1,800 in the United States at the time. By contrast, with the oil-infused Soviet ruble (1970-1990s), one hundred rubles was equivalent to $140 and could purchase twenty-seven bottles of Soviet sparkling wine or one pair of American blue jeans. Today, the Russian Federation’s illegitimate ruling regime led by Vladimir Putin, has made the ruble worthless – one hundred rubles is worth pennies as Russia’s economy spirals and its leaders refuse to reopen its stock market. If Tsar Nicholas I was as corrupt as the Putin regime, and the ruble then had the same value it does today, the amount of rubles Shevchenko paid for his freedom would have been equivalent to about twenty-six dollars.

As a free man, Shevchenko continued to work as an artist, and received awards from the Imperial Academy of Arts, which he later joined as a fellow. He traveled back to Ukraine and worked for the Kyiv Archaeographic Commission painting and drawing archaeological interests, including ruins. He visited with family members still enchained by serfdom and unsuccessfully tried to raise money to free them. He also met and befriended other well-regarded Ukrainian artists and thought leaders, including members of the Brotherhood of Saints Cyril and Methodius, a secret, underground network of Eastern Orthodox Christian intellectuals in Kyiv who shared democratic values and organized around the mission of liberalizing the political and social system of Imperial Russia, doing away with systemic oppression, and freeing serfs from the bondage of slavery and cruelty.

The founding of the Brotherhood of Saints Cyril and Methodius predated by a few years, the Springtime of Nations, the series of political upheavals throughout Europe that took place in 1848; powerful democratic and liberal political revolutions that reached more than fifty countries, and called for monarchies to be replaced with democratic nation-states that would ensure a free press, protect individual liberties, and strive for basic economic equalities, and would not sacrifice the human rights of the masses to further enrich the overflowing fortunes of the super wealthy and powerful. The seeds of Enlightenment planted over the previous two centuries had spread and sprouted, beaming light in a time of darkness and a hunger for nourishment and freedom. There was a food crisis in Europe known as the European Potato Failure caused by potato blight, that led to mass starvation, and especially hit Ireland and the Scottish Highlands the hardest, places where the potato was the staple food source. As Europeans starved and economic conditions worsened, they began to rise against the monarchies they blamed for betraying the people, stealing their freedoms, and creating large scale suffering.

The Ukrainian underground group was named after the Bulgarian-born Saints Cyril and Methodius, considered “Apostles to the Slavs.” In the mid-9th century, the emperor of the Byzantine Empire sent the two brothers to Great Moravia (located in modern day Czech Republic) at the request of its prince, to convert Slavs to Eastern Orthodox Christianity. During this process, because there was no written Slavic language, they worked with Slavs to create one, which evolved to Cyrillic, named after Cyril, which is used by many Slavic countries today, including Ukraine, Belarus, and Russia. Eastern Orthodox Christianity was later introduced to the late Kyivan Rus’ kingdom in the late 10th century by the Grand Prince who ruled from Kyiv and converted the lands to Christianity and worked in close partnership with Constantinople, hundreds of years before Moscow existed or was relevant. Centuries later, in 1845, this secretive political organization was formed with a strong linkage to this history, reminding Ukraine the power of Kyiv’s roots, its roadmap to freedom and independence.

The Brotherhood of Saints Cyril and Methodius was founded in response to the repressive rule of Emperor Nicholas I of Russia. He was a militaristic tyrant focused on expansionism and waging winnable wars; he ruled poorly and oppressively and failed to make domestic investments into the Russian Empire that were important to its future. Although there was strong economic growth and massive industrialization under his rule, he centralized power and put military commanders in charge of civilian government leadership positions despite that they lacked qualifications. He failed to invest in infrastructure, including not building railways, which caused the Russian Empire to fall behind other industrialized foreign powers. He severely neglected the wellbeing of Ukraine while suppressing Ukrainians. Instead, he poured money into making his military glamourous and appear invincible, which he showcased in military parades. His troops were left without proper training and inadequate equipment to fight in combat. Even his military horses were not battle-ready, they were only trained to perform in processions as a demonstration of militaristic superiority. When Tsar Nicolas I’s appetite for war expanded to Crimea (1853-1856), the world quickly discovered his military strength was more deception than reality, as demonstrated by the embarrassing defeat. History repeats itself as Vladimir Putin’s disastrous regime depletes itself waging an illegal war and genocide in Ukraine, exposing years of gaslighting that created an illusion of strong military command, all that quickly evaporated against a much smaller but fearless opponent that continues to outmaneuver the world’s most evil power and its voracious hunger for death and destruction.

Given the domestic problems and his oppressive leadership, Nicholas I was especially paranoid of revolt. He had witnessed uprisings brewing in the United States and across Europe and would not tolerate what he perceived as challenges to his power – criticism and attempted reforms. He clamped down on opposition and was especially threatened by Ukrainian intellectuals associated with the Brotherhood of Saints Cyril and Methodius, the underground network in Kyiv that championed principles of democracy, including freedom and envisioned a diversity of Slavic states, independent but united. He sent his secret imperial police to spy on the group’s members and meetings. It was around this period that Shevchenko wrote some of his most explosive poetry and writings, brilliantly capturing the mass oppression Ukrainians were living under and calling for the Empire to be transformed to recognize the independence of Ukraine, which imperial Russians deemed inferior. These poems, written between 1843 to 1845, were called ‘Three Years’ and became widely circulated among members of the group.

On the 5 of April 1847, imperial authorities arrested members of the secret Brotherhood society and raided their belongings. They found the ‘Three Years’ booklet Shevchenko wrote that served as a significant source for the resistance leaders, including a poem that ridiculed the Tsar and his wife. Since Shevchenko was the author of the work that was found among the belongings of the arrested members, he received the harshest punishment of all those detained and lost the freedom he had first secured less than a decade earlier.

Tsar Nicholas I had Shevchenko exiled and required him to serve in the imperial army as a forced conscript, stationed near the Ural Mountains. It was a common practice of the Tsar’s, to compel opposition and minority groups to serve in the military. This practice especially targeted Jewish communities in Poland, many male children were forced into military service and men, by the age of eighteen, were required to serve in the imperial military for twenty-five years, in far-off lands, away from their families; a codified Russification program that also aimed to convert them to Christianity. The Tsar specifically included language in his orders that Shevchenko was sentenced “Under the strictest surveillance, without a right to write or paint.”

Taras Shevchenko self-portrait, oil, 1840-1841

Come on, let’s write some poems again.
Secretly, of course. Come on,
While something novel forms a basis, 
Let’s refurbish God’s old tale.
Or…how to tell you,
Without lying. Let’s again
Curse fate and people.”

 -  Taras Shevchenko

Fortunately for Shevchenko, when he arrived at the Orenburg Field Battalion where he was exiled, he received a celebrity welcome. Military commanders and fellow soldiers were fascinated by the political exile from Saint Petersburg, a well-known poet and artist. He befriended many of the imperial officers and received special treatment. He was provided private accommodations outside of the military barracks, allowing him free time and privacy to think, paint, read, and write. Shevchenko was given access to some of the greatest works of literature, including creations of William Shakespeare and Alexander Pushkin, and encouraged to draw and paint. He was even commissioned by the military for an eighteen-month long project to sketch and paint scenes of the Aral Sea. During this period of exile, he drew landscapes, military life, and painted portraits of military commanders. In addition to further developing his painting technique, he also wrote some of his most influential poetry. However, not long after painting the portrait of one officer, Shevchenko found himself in a conflict with him, and in retaliation, the officer betrayed the artist by telling Tsar Nicholas I the freedom he was permitted in violation of the imperial ruler’s direct orders.

Self-portrait, Taras Shevchenko

I am tormented, I suffer, but I do not repent.

-  Taras Shevchenko

Nicholas I was furious that his own military commanders disobeyed his orders and were seduced by Shevchenko’s words and talents. He had him immediately imprisoned and a few months later, transported to Orsk Fortress along the Caspian Sea. There, Shevchenko no longer enjoyed special privileges, he lived in the crowded barracks where there was little privacy, and his days were consumed with military drills. Despite this, he continued to disobey the Tsar, writing poetry and painting in secrecy. He experienced health problems, largely due to the bleak conditions, but his fiery spirit could not be extinguished despite his bouts of depression. He became closely acquainted with other prisoners and learned their personal stories of humiliation and human rights abuses they suffered under the Russian Empire, which only fueled his anger towards Russian imperialism. While in prison, Shevchenko continued to draw and paint, capturing these experiences of suffering of his fellow inmates. He wrote twenty novellas, including many that were autobiographies, illustrating the corruption of the regime that imprisoned him. Shevchenko included himself in scenes he painted, as an observer or witness who was removed from but aware of the atrocities and hardships experienced by the main human subjects in the images. Prison hardened his appearance but not his soul, and his work only grew bolder. After seven years, the new emperor of the Russian Empire, Alexander the I, freed Shevchenko.

In early 1858, Shevchenko returned to Saint Petersburg where he was met with celebratory receptions hosted in his honor by the Ukrainian community that considered him Ukraine’s national poet. He was also surrounded by his close Polish and Russian friends, some of his greatest champions and partners against oppression. After months of reuniting with other intellectuals in Saint Petersburg, Shevchenko traveled back to Ukraine to visit family and friends. In Ukraine, Shevchenko continued to cause “good trouble,” as the late Congressman John Lewis would describe acts of disobedience against authoritarianism. He was still closely monitored, and as he gave new life to the works he wrote while in exile, his words of truth threatened those in power. Two months after arriving in Ukraine, he was arrested for “blasphemous speech.” He quickly found himself permanently banned from Ukraine, the Motherland, and returned to Saint Petersburg.

The bow is bent, the arrow flies, the winged shaft of fate.

 -  Ira Aldridge

While living in exile in Saint Petersburg, Shevchenko continued engaging with other artistic and cultural influencers of the highest level of Imperial Russian society. It was during this time when he first met and befriended another heroic artistic legend – Ira Aldridge, an American-born actor, playwright, and theater manager who moved to England as a teenager and became the first black actor to star in Shakespearean productions, and at a time when slavery existed in the United States. Aldridge grew up in New York City where he received a classical education from the African Free School, an institution founded by New York Manumission Society Members, including Founding Fathers Alexander Hamilton and John Jay. It was during this period when he was first introduced to theater and his enormous passion and talent for acting was discovered. He joined the African Company, a group of prominent African American classical performers who established the first African American theater in the United States. After encountering immense racial discrimination and the theater was destroyed by a hate crime, Aldridge realized he was better off moving to Liverpool, England to pursue his acting career.

In England, Aldridge quickly rose as a star performer and a vocal advocate for the abolishment of slavery. He began performing in leading roles in Shakespearean plays and on closing nights, after the performance, Aldridge took to the stage to address the audience about the injustices of slavery and man’s common dreams of freedom. He developed himself as a powerful and diverse performer and began touring throughout Europe and the Russian Empire where he felt especially welcomed and embraced by influential famous artists and actors, including Shevchenko. His performance as King Lear in St. Petersburg was attended by Shevchenko who was blown away by Aldridge’s powerful acting. After the show, Shevchenko entered Aldridge’s dressing room, ran up to him, and hugged the actor and kissed him on the cheek for his brilliant and moving acting. Shevchenko was so in awe of Aldridge’s talents that he wrote a letter to his friend Mikhail Shchepkin, the most famous actor of the Russian Empire in the 19th century, and told him he had seen a “miracle on the stage.” Shevchenko passionately praised Aldridge so often that a famous Russian cartoonist teased the poet by sketching and publishing a cartoon illustrating his admiration of him; a sketch Shevchenko proudly agreed was on point.

The Ukrainian poet and Aldridge spent time together at the home of Count Fydor Petrovich Tolstoy, where Shevchenko was a frequent guest. Count Tolstoy was considered one of Imperial Russia’s greatest artists and served as Vice President of the Imperial Academy of Arts. He was also the cousin of the famous author and philosopher Leo Tolstoy, who memorialized Count Tolstoy with the character Dolokhov in his famous work War and Peace. During Shevchenko and Aldridge’s visits, the Count’s young daughter Katarina (Katya) Tolstoy served as a translator for the two men who quickly became good friends.

Shevchenko and Aldridge shared a connection to serfdom and oppression, and an unbreakable passion for justice, human rights, and advancing the interest of their people. After all, the word “slave” originated from the ethnonym Slav, after countless Slavs were captured and enslaved during the medieval wars. The movement to abolish serfdom in the Russian Empire overlapped with the movement to abolish slavery in the United States, and the two friends often spoke of their people’s pursuit of the same aspirations of freedom. Outside of their serious political discussions, when they were left alone without an interpreter, Shevchenko and Aldridge found other ways to communicate through singing, dancing, performing, and art.

Their ability to bond and connect despite language barriers was on full display when Shevchenko sketched Aldridge’s portrait. For Shevchenko, this endeavor of capturing the illuminating essence of his dear friend who he greatly admired, was a serious task that required complete focus and stillness. For Aldridge, the subject who was required to sit still while having his portrait done by his friend the famous Ukrainian artist, it was an opportunity for playfulness and teasing. Aldridge kept moving around and refused to listen to a frustrated Shevchenko who pleaded with him to cooperate. But the more Shevchenko appeared serious and irritated, the more Aldridge moved around until the Shakespearian actor stood up and started dancing and singing. Shevchenko put down his art tools and join him; the two friends danced and sang together, including Ukrainian songs. The portrait was a masterpiece that lovingly captured Aldridge’s essence.

Ira Aldridge portrait by Taras Shevchenko

Their friendship was documented through years of exchanging letters and art and lasted until Shevchenko’s death. In March 1861, a few weeks before Tsar Alexander II, known as “Alexander the Liberator,” issued the Emancipation Manifesto that freed serfs, Shevchenko passed away. The man who helped inspire and fuel the movement to abolish serfdom did not live long enough to see it officially end. After he passed away, Aldridge honored his friend with a performance tour to multiple cities throughout Ukraine, Shevchenko’s Motherland where he was banned from until his body was returned for burial. Aldridge lived to see United States President Abraham Lincoln sign the Emancipation of Proclamation the year after Shevchenko passed away; Aldridge died two years after the Civil War ended. He passed away while on tour in Poland. At time of his death, Aldridge planned a return to the United States where he scheduled a nation-wide post-Civil War tour, a celebration of freedom he was no longer able to perform. Today, in Washington, D.C., there is a statute of Taras Shevchenko located near DuPont Circle and a theater named Ira Aldridge at Howard University - the two friends are honored internationally for their legacies as artists and champions for freedom and justice, a struggle both their people still share today.

It's terrible to lie in chains,
To rot in dungeon deep,
But it's still worse when you are free
To sleep, and sleep, and sleep."

- Taras Shevchenko

Over the past decades, as many in the West slept and took for granted their freedoms, an evil rose that is so dangerous, it now threatens to extinguish a significant portion of humanity and impacts every part of the globe. Vladimir Putin’s regime did not rise by itself, but from seeds of corruption sprinkled around the world, sprouting poisonous weeds that were watered and overlooked, until they grew into strong vines that entangled and strangled democracies, leaving them incapable of defending from this foreign rogue terrorist regime, until now, thanks to the unmatched courage of Ukraine. Putin’s regime seized power through terror and stealing and held onto it for so long because of an obedient army of domestic and foreign political serfs who perform at its command and normalize the threat to the world, even as it wages an illegal war and commits genocide on Ukraine, creating a refugee crisis as a pandemic surges, and threatening nuclear terrorism. This decades long addiction to blood-money that benefits the few at the expense of everyone has finally illustrated the consequences in a way that has woken up the world, but still too many prefer to go back “to sleep, and sleep, and sleep.” Everyone has the responsibility to wake up and get out of their comfort zones given the severity of the reality we face and if we want freedom from evil’s grip.

Ukrainians on the frontlines sacrificing and defending themselves and the world from the madman in the Kremlin, do not want to hear opinions or analysis from those who are just waking up to the severity of the danger of Vladimir Putin. Even worse, from those who are part of the Putin appeasement machine that emboldened and empowered him. Ukrainians tolerated enough over eight years as countless global elites enriched themselves off the Putin regime’s blood money and negligent journalists whitewashed his atrocities since Putin first invaded Ukraine in 2014, following Ukraine’s Revolution of Dignity, and the Kremlin’s hybrid warfare attacks against many democracies since, including their own. Too many ignored the clear and present danger and the Kremlin’s smoking guns within Western political systems, so evident that investigations were not needed to reveal them. Countless reputable journalist, human rights activists, and Ukrainians had already exposed them and were on the frontlines warning the world of the common danger we all faced. The war that Putin is waging is not only against Ukraine but against the free world.

Keep fighting – you are sure to win! God helps you in your fight!

– Taras Shevchenko

Three years before he was assassinated, American civil rights leader and international icon Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr., who was greatly influenced by Leo Tolstoy, delivered a powerful commencement at Oberlin College in June 1965, in Oberlin, Ohio. He reminded the audience of young college graduates about the fictional story of Rip Van Winkle who slept for twenty years through the American Revolution. When Rip Van Winkle first fell asleep, the sign on a local inn had a portrait of King George III, and when he woke, it had been replaced with a portrait of George Washington, leaving him confused and lost because he slumbered through a pivotal moment in world history. Dr. King told the young audience:

“There are too many people who, in some great period of social change, fail to achieve the new mental outlooks that the new situation demands. There is nothing more tragic than to sleep through a revolution. There can be no gainsaying of the fact that a great revolution is taking place in our world today. It is a social revolution, sweeping away the old order of colonialism…In the real sense, the idea whose time has come today is the idea of freedom and human dignity. Wherever men are assembled today, the cry is always the same, “We want to be free.”’

Dr. King cautioned that the key to staying awake during a historic shift requires that we are “challenged to achieve a world perspective.” He said, “Anyone who feels we can live in isolation today, anyone who feels that we can live without being concerned about other individuals and other nations is sleeping through a revolution.” He reminded that “We must all learn to live together as brothers – or we will all perish together as fools.”

It is time for those sleepwalking during this moment in humanity’s history, to wake up and understand that there is a rogue terrorist regime that threatens the planet. It is sinful to sacrifice the one democratic country on the frontlines standing up to the Evil the world faces. Except for some of Ukraine’s most loyal neighbors, too many political, religious, and business leaders continue delaying providing full support to Ukraine, to ensure it has everything needed to protect itself and the world from Putin’s regime. “Better late than never” does not erase a history of cowardice and incompetence, which always results in devastating consequences as we continue to see today. Too many leaders continue to sleepwalk through this period of global change and do not understand the urgency to act quickly to save countless lives not only in Ukraine, but around the world.

William Shakespeare said, “It is held that valor is the chiefest virtue, and most dignifies the haver.” Ukraine is the definition of valor. Those around the world who unconditionally and without hesitation stand with Ukraine, including other countries’ leaders and citizens defending themselves against the Kremlin’s political grip, like Belarusians who are under Kremlin occupation and fight side-by-side with Ukrainians, also demonstrate great courage. For those who wish to see the courage of Ukrainian forces in action, a solider risking his life to defend Europe in 2022, take a look at this video and ask yourself how many western elites operating from the comforts of their luxurious lifestyles while they debate from a place of cowardice about providing more support to Ukraine, would be willing to do the same for their country?

Which Washington, D.C. elites would risk their lives for their nation like Ukrainian forces on the frontlines of Putin’s war? None. They refused to defend their nation when Putin installed his political weapon of mass destruction in the Oval Office in 2016, and were more focused on making money and powerplays so they could send their children to fancy private schools and on luxurious vacations. Maybe they are not the best to weigh in about how to take Vladimir Putin down and should listen to those brave enough to be on the frontlines of this global war.

The road ahead will require the entire world, including Russians, to rise in this decisive moment of history and achieve our common goal: freedom. It requires understanding the current situation the world faces:

1.     Ukraine is winning the conventional war against the Russian Federation.

A little more than three weeks ago, Vladimir Putin was confident that the Russian Federation could successfully escalate its eight-year war against Ukraine and seize its capital, Kyiv, in as little as seventy-two hours. Putin was not the only one who was confident, as some western leaders urged Ukrainian President Volodymir Zelenskyy to flee Kyiv before the escalation; disastrous advice that would have handed the Kremlin a major victory. Instead, Ukrainians did what they do best, they stood their ground and beamed the light of courage in a time of darkness. They ignited the torch of resistance that lit up the world. Their valor was demonstrated by strength, compassion, love, and fearlessness that countless people around the globe connected with; that filled a void many may not have realized existed. Ukrainians planted seeds of resistance against the evil in Moscow that poisons so many, and are forcing world leaders to cut vines of blood money that fuel fascism, strangle democracies, and suffocates humanity. Because President Zelenskyy did not listen to those in the West who operate from a place of cowardice, he has risen as the leader of the free world.

The resistance illuminated by Ukrainians and their Jewish president has exposed the Putin regime’s weakness – a pandemic of corruption so vast that it ate itself from within; like a tall tree in the forest that stands above the rest but comes crashing down with a light breeze because the tree was hollow. Ukraine’s resistance also exposed the extensive allegiance that the Putin regime established globally, and how for some, “never again” is merely a slogan while they watch Ukrainian Holocaust survivors and children being brutally assassinated by Russian fascists who make the Nazis seem polite. Maternity wards, schools, hospitals, churches, and theaters have been destroyed by Russian missiles. Cities are forcefully occupied as war criminals go door to door assassinating families and their pets, and using Stalinistic tactics of capturing survivors and illegally taking them to undisclosed locations in Russia. Mariupol, a thriving European city a month ago, is now a devastated ghost town, its citizens murdered and kidnapped. Photos and paintings of injured Ukrainian mothers holding newborns capture the brutality of Russian forces who massacre civilians of all ages.

Artwork is based on a photo of a Ukrainian mother who was injured in Putin’s war while giving birth; shared on Twitter by Ukrainian MP Lesia Vasylenko who described the piece, “Madonna of Ukraine. Artwork of our time.”

In less than a month, Vladimir Putin caused the unnecessary death of an estimated ten to fifteen thousand Russian soldiers; with Russia reporting the former number, and Ukraine the latter. Thousands of more have been badly injured. After a Russian sponsored news outlet reported the Russian Defense Ministry’s massive human loss, the information was taken down the following day; another glimpse of the power struggle in Russia against the Putin regime. Among the dead are six Russian generals, an unprecedent number to die in battle and in such a short period of time. These generals have been forced onto the frontlines of the Kremlin’s illegal war because Russian troops are armature fighters who are “totally unprepared” for combat against Ukrainian forces, according to one of President Zelenskyy’s top advisors. Other western defense officials believe the high death toll of top commanders is related to technological failures after Russian troops destroyed communication towers in Ukraine, which left them using devices that enabled easy interception of their communications.

Thousands of other Russian soldiers have surrendered to Ukraine, many provided care, protection, and a generous amount of payment in exchange. Soldiers who have been captured are afforded an opportunity to call their loved ones, including their wives and mothers. Despite the extreme levels the Putin regime has gone to cover-up its atrocities in Ukraine – pumping state sponsored propaganda, censoring independent journalists, shutting down social media platforms like Twitter, Facebook, and Instagram, information continues to reach Russians. Word of mouth, person-to-person communication is often the most reliable and trusted of sources, and there are a lot of Russian mothers and wives talking when they learn from their sons or husbands’ captured fellow-soldiers that their loved ones have been killed in Putin’s illegal war and how well Ukrainians treat those who were captured.

Putin’s illegal war empowered Ukraine to build a powerful military, the most battle-tested in the world. Ukrainian forces have had eight years of training defending their nation from Putin’s invasion that started in 2014, now they are joined by thousands of brave soldiers from around the world who put their safe lives on hold and left their loved ones to join Ukraine’s Foreign Legion to defend the freedoms of the European country as if it were their own. Many of these foreign seasoned veterans, including among the thousands of Americans, have expressed that this is the type of war they trained their entire lives for - one clearly defined between good and evil. Ukraine continues to receive an outpouring of military equipment and defense financing from its allies, though more is needed, and has been extremely successful in capturing Russian tanks, aircraft, and vehicles, as well as destroying those that do not surrender. As Ukraine’s military strengthens, Russia’s military continues to be drastically depleted.

Photo: One of many Russian soldiers who surrendered and gave Ukrainian forces a Russian tank in exchange for Ukraine providing him protection from the Kremlin; safety and money provided to start a new life of freedom, rather than be killed in an illegal war. The Ukrainian government is running a program to save Ukrainian lives by helping Russian soldiers escape the war, including many who have been threatened with death by their own commanders if they fail in their missions; this includes paying Russian pilots one million dollars for fighter jets and half a million for Russian helicopters (source).

The world continues to be captivated by Ukrainian civilians fearlessly protesting against the Russian illegal invaders trying to destroy and occupy their communities and cities. Ukrainian forces are fighting arm-in-arm with millions of Ukrainian civilians bravely facing heavily armed Russian fascist invaders, demonstrating the power of peaceful protests.

Photo: One of many cities and towns in Ukraine that Russian invaders struggle to occupy as Ukrainian citizens resist and protest (Source).

Putin understands that by Ukraine standing its ground, he has lost the war. Over the past week, his regime has witnessed enormous losses, and he has learned the hard way that the corruption of Russia’s intelligence arm and defense industry sabotaged him. This should have been evident in early 2021, when some in Putin’s most trusted circle provided his greatest political opponent video footage from inside Putin’s secret palace, an inside job that was supported with many details of information. Given today’s circumstances, it appears the Federal Security Service (FSB) turned on Putin long ago, and did not fulfill it mission to use millions of dollars to bribe Ukrainian officials, a key strategy of Putin’s to strengthen his political grip on Russia’s peaceful neighbor and squash powers of resistance prior to escalating his war on Ukraine. Where did all that money go? During Putin’s illegal war escalation against Ukraine, FSB officials played a strong role helping the Ukrainian government protect President Zelenskyy’s life from teams of assassins Putin sent to kill him, and who ended up killed instead. Russia’s defense industry is so corrupt that the head of Ukraine’s corruption prevention agency sent the Russian defense minister an open thank-you letter because his corruption left Russia’s soldiers untrained and underequipped; “the head of Ukraine's National Agency on Corruption Prevention, Oleksandr Novikov, said that embezzlement of public funds has made an "invaluable contribution" to the defense of his country.” Two days ago, Ukrainian intelligence reported that there is a coup underway in Russia to remove Putin from power; with the facts that are publicly available support.

The cost of Ukraine standing its ground is immeasurable. Ukrainians’ sacrifice has has resulted in the loss of thousands of lives; countless injured, a mass migration of ten million refugees, thousands of civilians captured and forcefully taken to Russia, and the destruction of Ukrainians cities and historic buildings, including houses of worship. This is in addition to the previous eight years of Putin’s war on Ukraine that killed an estimated fourteen thousand people, internally displaced about two million, and left part of Ukraine illegally occupied by a foreign power that kills and oppresses its own citizens. The ruthlessness of Russian invaders cannot be understated – civilians, including children and the elderly have been assassinated, members of the press killed, iconic buildings and hallowed grounds destroyed, and Europe flooded with a refugee crisis as the pandemic surges, threatening to disrupt supply channels, and cause a potential food crisis that will impact the world.

Putin’s obedient Russian Orthodox Church leaders, who function as a religious military arm of the Kremlin and champion his illegal war and genocide against Ukraine, support the destruction of Ukrainian houses of worship, including this church in the Zhytomyr region built in 1862, the year after Taras Shevchenko died and serfdom was abolished in imperial Russia - the Church of the Nativity of the Blessed Virgin.

Despite the destruction and loss of life Ukraine continues to suffer, it is winning the conventional war against Putin. Those who say otherwise, received another reminder today that they still sleepwalking through a global shift of change, when Anatoly Chubias, the “architect of Russia’s 1990s privatization,” and a mentor of Putin’s who gave him his first job in the Kremlin, resigned as the Russian climate envoy and fled Russia. Chubia’s sudden resignation and betrayal of Putin is in protest to Putin’s illegal war and genocide in Ukraine. When the most loyal and powerful of Putin’s inner circle flee, the fall of Putin is inevitable. It is also very telling that Paul Manafort, Putin’s most trusted longtime America political warfare mercenary and longtime partner and campaign manager of the previous Kremlin-installed U.S. President, was stopped by U.S. officials this week as he attempted to leave the country with a revoked passport. He was taken off a Miami flight headed for Dubai. The United Arab Emirates continues to provide a safe-haven for Putin’s inner circle and a way for banks and others impacted by sanctions to protect investments. Dubai also has direct flights to Moscow and UAE has no extradition treaty with the U.S. What was Manafort planning to do in Dubai surrounded by Putin’s once loyal inner circle? Propose another “peace plan” to divide Ukraine and secure Putin a win? Only a silly man would think President Zelenskyy would play such games.

For those Putin appeasers who continue to champion negotiations with the Kremlin, after years of Putin demonstrating he cannot be trusted and that negotiations are only a tactic to buy him time to do more damage, maybe they will now realize Putin no longer has the optics of negotiating power, thanks to Ukraine. The danger is now unconventional warfare, which not only immediately threatens all of Europe, but Russia.

2.  Putin’s regime is using unconventional warfare tactics targeted at Ukraine that have no geographical boundaries and will ensure catastrophic consequences.

With an embarrassing conventional warfare defeat against Ukraine, Putin is escalating his war against Europe through unconventional warfare tactics targeted at Ukraine but that will directly impact NATO member countries with catastrophic consequences and will officially and undeniably lead to World War III if Russians do not act and remove Putin immediately by any means necessary. The Kremlin has invested billions in unconventional warfare over the years, more so than training their military for combat, as we have seen with military intelligence-run hybrid warfare attacks against democracies to install puppet-politicians who advance Putin’s agenda; including but not limited to Europe and Northern America. However, the unconventional warfare tactics he is preparing to use now threaten devastating lethal consequences, including for Russia.

These include the following:

a.)   Biological warfare.

The Kremlin’s disinformation talking points falsely accusing Ukraine of biological warfare capabilities, and which have been promoted by pro-Putin western politicians, including Republicans in the United States who continue to threaten national security and democracy, are a Russian tactic of projection. Putin’s capabilities of using biological warfare are not being debated because he has the ability and the will, but must be understood in the context of the bigger refugee crisis he’s strategically causing.

Putin is recycling a 2015 playbook used against Syria but with a biological lethal twist. Back then, he caused a massive refugee crisis, causing millions of Syrians to flee their country, to overwhelm the infrastructure of NATO member nations, including with the intention of impacting their economies and elections. Disinformation operations targeted at voters in these host countries, to fuel fear and resentment toward immigrants and refugees, were carried out with help by Cambridge Analytica, which Stephen Bannon played a leading role in. This multi-faceted strategy helped tip the 2016 Kremlin-backed Brexit referendum vote in Putin’s favor, as well as the U.S. presidential election that followed a few months later and was largely driven by anti-refugee and anti-immigration propaganda. Today, this strategy of causing a refugee crisis to weaponize it to achieve longer-term goals, a geographical mission creep, has a devastating biological component. First, the tens of millions of refugees that have already fled Ukraine, have done so as a deadly pandemic surges in Europe and as Europe continues to lessen pandemic restrictions. Second, Putin is willing and capable of using actual biological warfare against Ukrainians that could spread another form of deadly virus on top of the latest wave of COVID that is having devastating impacts on many parts of the world. Putin is this dangerous and capable of executing such mass atrocities while attempting to shield himself under the transparent veil of plausible deniability.

Photo taken in June 2015 by Anadolu Agency/A.I. Oztury, showing Syrian refugees fleeing Syria to safety in Turkey. The following month, the United Nations Human Rights Council (UNHRC) reported that more than four million Syrian refugees fled. The Russian Federation was a member of the UNHRC in 2015 while causing this massive refugee crisis to overwhelm NATO members.

As the pandemic surges, Ukrainian refugees flee Ukraine because of Vladimir Putin’s illegal war and genocide. More than ten million fled in less than three weeks. The Russian Federation continues to be a member of the UNHRC as it commits atrocities in Ukraine and threatens NATO members. Photo taken by the Associate Press in late February.

b.)   Chemical Warfare.

Putin has made clear he is willing to use chemical warfare to murder millions of Ukrainians, which will not only lead to great loss of life but escalate the current refugee crisis of ten million refugees who already left their homes and country. The Russian military hit a chemical plant that caused a dangerous ammonia gas leak, impacted a small area in east Ukraine. Russian forces are increasingly using tear gas against peaceful Ukrainian protestors. Russian occupiers have been using tear gas against peaceful Ukrainian civilians demonstrating against the illegal invaders. A couple days ago, Russian soldiers released a video showing the use of white phosphorus munition in the eastern Ukrainian city of Kramatorsk. Today, a Ukrainian journalist reported that the Mayor of Iprin said Russians used white phosphorus the previous night.

Photo taken on March 22, 2022 in Iprin showing Russian invaders using white phosphorus in Ukraine; shared on Twitter by Ukrainian journalist Igor Kossov.

These are among the incidents used to threaten and normalize a much bolder chemical warfare attack that Putin’s terrorist regime may be planning, one that will lead to great loss of life and have disastrous environmental impacts, worsening a massive refugee crisis, and possibly even poisoning farmland and contributing to global food shortages in the longer term.

c.)   Nuclear Terrorism. Under the current circumstances and with an internal coup underway to overthrow Putin, it is unclear whether Putin has access to launch massive nuclear weapons, just as the previous Kremlin-installed U.S. President was blocked by the Joint Chiefs of Staff from starting a nuclear war with China that would have led to billions of people being killed and an environmental catastrophe for the planet. Putin uses the threat of nuclear war to paralyze western leaders from taking decisive and fast action to save lives and cities in Ukraine; an excuse that feeds off many still tormented by the Cold War threats of nuclear war. Regardless of whether he has capabilities to launch nuclear warheads, Putin can do immense damage not only to Europe but to Russia through a diversity of acts of nuclear warfare and terrorism if not immediately removed.

• Tactical Nuclear Weapons. Western intelligence agencies are increasingly concerned that Putin will use tactical nuclear weapons against Ukraine. While these weapons are smaller and more precise in targeting, their danger cannot be downplayed and could lead to NATO retaliating against the Russian Federation. The type of tactical nukes used determine the radius of the fireball heavy blast damage, radiation, moderate blast damage, thermal radiation, and light blast damage. Those who survive tactical nukes have a very high probability of developing lethal cancer. If Putin uses tactical nukes against Ukraine, this is a level of escalation that will lead to the Russian Federation being retaliated against, especially if used near the border of NATO member states. It is in the interest of Russia for him to be removed before he is capable of executing such atrocities.

• Chernobyl. Older generations have vivid memories of the April 1986 Chernobyl nuclear power plant disaster in northern Ukraine, the worst nuclear disaster in history. The nuclear power plant exploded and caught fire, immediately killing twenty-eight people and injuring about a hundred others, but its longer term impact continues to be devastating. Thousands developed lethal health issues and the environmental damage to the region surrounding the plant is heartbreaking; it will not be habitable for another twenty thousand years, according to scientists. The radiation from the incident spread globally and especially impacted neighboring countries. For instance, twenty-three percent of Belarus’s territory was contaminated, destroying a fifth of its agricultural lands. The disaster cost more than two hundred billion dollars to address. Today, that nuclear plant, while no longer active, requires continued maintenance and upkeep, including a consistent supply of power, but it’s currently under Russian occupation that threatens another catastrophe. American journalist, author, poet, and artist Zarina Zabrisky who was born in Saint Petersburg during the Soviet Union, has warned and provided evidence to dozens of western media outlets on how Putin is weaponizing the Chernobyl plant and threatening to cause a disaster that will not only impact Ukraine, but Russia and NATO member states. They continue to ignore this important story. The plant and its facilities in the Exclusion Zone have been under the control of Russian terrorists since February 24th, and power to the plant was temporarily cut on March 9th, and has not been fully restored. Between 211 to 300 workers at the plant have been held hostage since the Russians first took it over, and are forced to work without proper downtime and while separated from their families. Sixty-four of them were exchanged for forty-six volunteers on March 20th. On the 30th anniversary of the Chernobyl disaster, Zabrisky translated and published powerful memories shared by dozens of witnesses who survived the impact of the nuclear disaster, capturing a diversity of experiences from different generations and nationalities. She is now in communication with some of the workers from the Chernobyl power plant that is under Russian occupation, and has spoken with members of their families who shared with her the grim and concerning situation, a reality that the media ignores as too many sleepwalk through the danger. Maintenance crews have struggled to provide the facilities with the upkeep necessary due to the barbaric behavior of Russian invaders who open fire around the structures and have raided the buildings looking for equipment and other things to steal. The system that monitors the radiation levels has been down for days, and yesterday it was reported that more than half a dozen forest fires, likely started by Russian forces through shelling or arson, has worsened the crisis - fires near the vicinity can cause radiation levels to skyrocket. In 2020, when there was a fire in the Exclusion Zone, the firefighters were impacted by radiation, which was sixteen times higher due to the heat. This is a crisis that threatens the world, not only Ukraine.

• Active Nuclear Power Plants. In addition to Chernobyl, Ukraine has fifteen active nuclear reactors located in several other nuclear power plant facilities that are distributed across the country. One of the active plants, Zaporizhzhia nuclear plant in the southeastern city of Enerhodar, was seized in early march. It is the biggest nuclear plant in all of Europe and Russian forces shooting near it, caused radiation leakage. The region of Zaporizhzhia is currently under illegal Russian occupation, and over the last few days, Russia forces have called for illegal elections in the region and opened fire on buses of Ukrainian children evacuating through an area that was supposed to be a safe corridor. We have seen over the past few weeks the recklessness of Russian forces, and total disregard for human rights and international law, which poses a danger given they cannot be trusted with nuclear facilities. Moreover, if Putin orders missiles to attack any or all these plants, it will have devastating consequences far beyond Ukraine. It could cause a nuclear disaster that dwarfs 1986 Chernobyl. This will certainly impact numerous NATO member states, global food supply when agricultural lands are contaminated, in addition to economic devastation, forcing countries to use significant portions of their budgets to address the disaster rather than allocating recourses to helping taking care of basic human needs of their citizens or putting toward climate change initiatives.

d.)   Starvation. The tactics Putin threatens to use in Ukraine have the potential to cause mass starvation at a greater level than Joseph Stalin’s man-made famine, Holodomor, that murdered millions of Ukrainians. Stalin’s cultivation program stole grain and food from Ukrainians while forcing them to work the land, and which was then used to feed other parts of the world when he sold it to build-up the Soviet military. Putin is on a mission to cause as much devastation in Ukraine as possible, and that will have a domino effect, including massive global food shortages that will impact Europe, Northern America, and China, as well as other parts of the world. In addition, the longer the war goes on, the longer the impact and more intensified economic sanctions will grow against Russia, causing starvation for Russians whose illegitimate rogue government is isolated on the world stage. Russian war criminals attacking the “Breadbasket of Europe” are threatening to cause world hunger, as many experts continue to warn. While many have found it amusing to watch viral videos of countless Ukrainian farmers seizing and hauling away Russian tanks, many Ukrainian farmers risk missing planting and harvesting seasons because of Putin’s atrocities. Ukraine’s president has been encouraging farmers to focus on growing crops, and some are able to do so, but others are on the frontlines of the war. Today, the General Staff of Ukraine’s Armed Forces reported that Russian invaders are trying to destroy Ukraine’s sowing campaign, planting mines to intentionally destroy Ukraine’s “agricultural machinery.” We have already seen major price increases in wheat, barely, and fertilizers, in addition to the increases in oil and gas. Those experiencing food security around the world will be impacted, including with higher prices at the store and food shortages.

Each of these unconventional war tactics that Putin’s regime threatens, have the high probability of pulling-in the full-force of NATO, and ensuring that World War III is undeniable. This is to no one’s benefit, including Russians.

e.) Political Hybrid Warfare

While too many Western elites and media have spent the past half decade normalizing the dangerous political warfare tactics Putin has used against democracies, including in the United States, securing himself powerful politicians who are willing to advance the Kremlin’s interests while sacrificing their country, this can no longer continue and presents a clear and present danger during this time of war. We cannot have Putin-backed Members of Congress, including those who were actively involved in an unsuccessful insurrection that resulted in a terrorist attack on the U.S. Capitol, abusing the powers of their office to promote Kremlin propaganda and gaslight Americans. American aviator Charles Lindberg, the spokesperson for the Nazi-front organization, the America First Committee (AFC), whose mission was to keep America out of World War II while the Third Reich continued to grow more dangerous and committed massive human rights atrocities, stood with United States when Pearl Harbor was attacked; AFC was dissolved a few days later. Yet, too many American politicians in power refuse to stand with the United States during this time of war, and are using their platforms to aid and abet a hostile foreign enemy that threatens humanity. Even worse, no government official seems willing to uphold their oath of office and hold these traitors accountable. Do they not understand that these Putin-performing politicians can be ignited to call on their cult of followers to cause acts of destruction in the United States that endanger American lives? It is cowardice and inexcusable that there is no accountability, and that traitors have not been arrested. American politicians only need a fraction of the courage of the Ukrainian mothers risking their lives serving on the frontlines defending their country and their children’s future and protecting us all from Putin. We are either a nation of laws or a fallen nation.

NPR: “Tanya Kobzar stands in front of the Taras Shevchenko Monument in Lviv. When Ukraine went to war last month, Kobzar — a 49-year-old mother of two — decided to follow in her grandmother's footsteps and enlist in the army.”

3.  Russians are the only ones with power to free themselves and the world from the danger of Putin and can save countless lives, including their own. Humans want to be free, and currently humanity is enslaved by the threat of Vladimir Putin who has no limits to the destruction he is willing to cause. We are at an all-hands-on-deck emergency to end this war as quickly as possible to save lives globally. This includes leaders of the global community – political, religious, business to immediately do their part to starve the evil beast in the Kremlin, by whatever means necessary.

Every politician must act to cut-off economic ties with Putin’s regime, every company must at the very least halt operations in Russia. If world leaders need strong examples of leaders who support Ukraine, look to the Polish President Andrzej Duda, Polish Prime Minister Mateusz, Slovenian Prime Minister Janez Jansa, Czechia Prime Minister Petra Fiala, Moldova President Mai Sandu, Lithuanian President Gitanas Nausėda, and the legitimate national leader of Belarus, Sviatlana Tsikhanouskaya, among other eastern and central European politicians who are proven champions for freedom and bravely stand against Putin’s regime and with Ukraine. Those courageous enough to stand with Ukraine in Kyiv while Putin wages war, are the truest of friends.

If business leaders need inspiration on how one should conduct themselves in this moment of history, look no further than many world-renowned chefs like Jose Andres who are feeding Ukrainian refugees, providing bread to those who fled the breadbasket of Europe because Russian invaders were assassinating Ukrainians waiting in breadlines. Another great example is Elon Musk; first he provided multiple shipments of Starlink stations to Ukraine remained connected to the world, now Starlink satellites empower Ukraine’s drones to destroy Russian tanks and vehicles. Helping Ukraine saves lives, helping Putin kills Ukrainians and Russians. Those doing business with the Russian Federation, are financing war crimes that threaten humanity and the planet.

Every religious leader must also step-up and denounce not only Vladimir Putin, but the leadership of the Russian Orthodox Church (ROC) that continues to support this illegal war and genocide. The ROC does not serve a higher power but a master in the Kremlin who runs a murderous regime committing war crimes against innocent men, women, and children. There is nothing “holy” about Putin’s war, it is crime against humanity and evil. The Patriarch of the Russian Orthodox Church is Putin’s war criminal co-conspirator and must also be held accountable with a trial at The Hague. Every Russian Orthodox Church leader around the world has a responsibility to denounce him and cut ties or risk being complicit in these crimes.

There no time to waste pretending that Putin or any of his war criminal accomplices can be negotiated with. That has been made clear. It is time to apply full-scale pressure on Russians to step up, own their power, and take Putin out the Russian way. No one should feed the dragon, it must be starved to death. Russians have the greatest ability to bring peace to themselves and to Ukraine, and free the world of this evil that has deceived their people, robbing them of their freedoms and future. More than a hundred and eighty years ago, Russians, including elite members of the imperial army, played an instrumental role helping free Taras Shevchenko, including providing him freedom while he was in exile and against the direct orders of the Tsar, empowering the international icon who helped shape the path to freedom for serfs and an independent Ukraine. They can do the same today by taking down the terrorist Tsar in the Kremlin who endangers us all. It only takes one person to change the world.

1846 drawing by Taras Shevchenko of All Saints Church at Kyiv Pechersk Lavra.

Our soul shall never perish,
Freedom knows no dying
And the Greedy Cannot Harvest
Fields where seas are lying
Cannot bind the living spirit
Nor the living word
Cannot smirch the sacred glory
Of the Almighty Lord."

-  Taras Shevchenko