dr. Drake Ramorrey🌱

About Oleshky. First, thank you to everyone who made this evacuation possible. To everyone who spent years drawing attention to russian genocide in Oleshky, long before the suffering made international headlines. And to everyone who continues fighting to bring home those abducted by russia. Every single life saved is invaluable. Watching people finally escape the hell of russian occupation, carrying their pets and a few belongings — whatever was left of their former lives — was both heartbreaking and deeply moving. russia made these people go through the hell none of us can even imagine. They will need enormous support to rebuild their lives, and I sincerely hope the Ukrainian state will provide it. And this brings me to the most important point that we should keep conveying to the world. This evacuation must not become a story about russian goodwill. None of these people should ever have been forced to live through that hell and flee their homes in the first place. For years, people in Oleshky have lived under russian occupation, subjected to grave abuses and deprived of their freedom and basic needs. Those atrocities demand thorough investigation and accountability, they must not be written off or forgotten. Allowing some people to leave does not erase what happened to them. Nor does it absolve russia of responsibility for those who still remain trapped, those who have been abducted, and those who have lost their lives. As for the russian political motives behind this operation. I fear that Moscow will be trying to present the release of these people as evidence of its supposed willingness to negotiate — and then use that narrative to encourage Washington to double down pressure on Kyiv as if we are an obstacle to peace. We are seeing the same story unfolding now, with the lately released American citizen who was illegally abducted by russia and tortured in captivity, but who now plays into Trump's narrative that sanctions againts russia must be lifted. russia is not humanitarian, it is a perpetrator and a core reason for this war. It is cancer of mankind. But besides political motives, russians may well try to get military advantages too. While the temporary Oleshky ceasefire made this evacuation possible, we should also be watching further russian military activity in the Kherson direction very closely. There were reports of russia using humanitarian demining to bring in more weapons, improve logistics and do troops rotations. None of this diminishes the extraordinary importance of the lives saved. Quite the opposite. But we must keep telling the *full story of Oleshky*. Not just about this evacuation, but the years of occupation, suffering, disappearances, deaths, and the people who are still there, waiting to come home. Because this mission also reminds us of something fundamental: this war continues only because russia chooses to continue it. If russia stops fighting, there will be no war. If Ukraine stops fighting, there will be no Ukraine. "I wanted Ukraine to be back in Oleshky, not people from Oleshky to move here," said a woman with tears in her eyes yesterday. I cannot agree more. This war is so unjust. Oleshky was, is and will always be Ukraine.