Some people are just built differently. A Reuters report begins, “British voluntary aid workers Chris Parry and Andrew Bagshaw were killed during an attempted humanitarian evacuation in eastern Ukraine.”

In a statement, Parry’s family said, “He found himself drawn to Ukraine in March in its darkest hour at the start of the Russian invasion and helped those most in need, saving over 400 lives plus many abandoned animals.”

Bagshaw’s family said that the two volunteers were killed when trying to rescue an elderly woman from the town of Soledar.

Andrew Bagshaw was 47; Chris Parry was 28. (This information comes from a BBC report.) I’m sorry they are dead. You could say they shouldn’t have been there. You could also say, there are worse ways to spend one’s time on earth.

• Here is a report from RFE/RL, out of Sarajevo:

One of the independent members of the recently established UN Commission of Inquiry on Ukraine says investigators have found evidence of war crimes, including sexual abuse of children, during Moscow’s invasion of Ukraine, with the “vast majority” of offenses having been committed by Russian troops.

(Article here.)

Something else for the deniers and foggers-up to deny and fog up.

• The below may seem a little thing — but it was the kind of thing that was done by freedom campaigners during the Cold War, and these little gestures added up:

Supporters of Russian opposition leader Alexei Navalny placed a replica of the tiny “punishment cell” he has repeatedly been held in outside Russia’s embassy in Berlin on Tuesday, in an effort to raise awareness of his fate.

(For that report — from the Associated Press — go here.)

• Michael R. Carpenter is the U.S. ambassador to the OSCE (the Organization for Security and Cooperation in Europe). He recently stated the simple fact that Russia is trying to “wipe out the sovereignty of an entire, independent nation,” namely Ukraine. He also said that Russia under Putin has the same designs on Belarus.

“The United States,” said Carpenter, “flatly rejects Russia’s efforts to dismiss and repress Ukraine’s distinct culture, history, and statehood. We also strongly support the sovereignty and independence of Belarus, which has a proud history and its own rich culture as well.”

(For an article, go here.)

Americans can take satisfaction in this stand by their government. I imagine most do (but, of course, not all).

• Kaja Kallas, the prime minister of Estonia, writes,

There is war in Ukraine because Russia started it, not because Ukraine is defending itself. Russia’s goals haven’t changed, it wants to continue its war of aggression.
This means we all need to do more. Give many more weapons to Ukraine, faster. We’re in it for the long haul.

Lots of us can afford to be illusioned about Russia. Baltic people, no. They don’t have the luxury.

• Here is Gabrielius Landsbergis, another unillusioned Balt. He is the foreign minister of Lithuania.

The longer we discuss how Ukraine should or should not be helped, the more Putin can build up his armed forces and murder civilians. That is why we need to overcome our fear of victory and act now.

An arresting phrase: “our fear of victory.” (To read recent remarks by Landsbergis, go here.)

• William J. Burns is unillusioned. That’s a good thing, given that he is CIA director. He is unillusioned about the Kremlin — always has been — and unillusioned about his own country, too. A report in the Washington Post begins,

CIA Director William J. Burns traveled in secret to Ukraine’s capital at the end of last week to brief President Volodymyr Zelensky on his expectations for what Russia is planning militarily in the coming weeks and months . . .

More from that report:

Top of mind for Zelensky and his senior intelligence officials during the meeting was how long Ukraine could expect U.S. and Western assistance to continue following Republicans’ takeover of the House and a drop-off in support of Ukraine aid among parts of the U.S. electorate . . .

Oh, yes.

More:

Burns emphasized the urgency of the moment on the battlefield and acknowledged that at some point assistance would be harder to come by . . .

Yes.

• Naturally, Senator Mitt Romney (R., Utah) is often asked why the U.S. is supporting Ukraine. He recorded a video — about three and a half minutes — giving the answer. He does a very, very good job of it. You can see it here.

Romney is a fish out of water in our politics today. I often admire fish out of water. (A lot depends on what one thinks of the water.)

In the 2012 presidential campaign, Romney warned of threats posed by Putin. President Obama and other Democrats laughed at him. (At Romney, I mean, not Putin.) Who is more scornful of Romney today? R’s or D’s?

A couple of years ago, Matt Schlapp, the head of CPAC, said, “We won’t credential him as a conservative.” Schlapp was talking about Romney. Well, some people may be reluctant to “credential” Schlapp and CPAC as conservative.

• Tweeted Mitch McConnell, the Republican leader in the Senate,

Glad the Biden Administration and our European allies have heeded Republicans’ calls to commit battle tanks to Ukraine’s fight to push back Russia’s invasion. Crucial next step is to quickly expand and improve our underlying defense industrial capabilities.

“Republicans’ calls”? Some Republicans’ calls?

I wish to make a broader point: Many pro-Ukraine Republicans — both in politics and in the media — couch their support of Ukraine in criticism of Biden. “He’s not doing enough, and he’s slow.” If that’s what it takes to make support of Ukraine palatable to their audiences — okay by me. The support of both parties, not just one, is crucial.

• About ten days ago, Senator Lindsey Graham (R., S.C.) was in Kyiv, along with two other senators: Richard Blumenthal (D., Conn.) and Sheldon Whitehouse (D., R.I.). Graham tweeted,

All three of us, one Republican and two Democrats, share the same goal — for Ukraine to drive the Russians out of Ukraine.
To achieve that goal, the Ukrainian military needs tanks.

I have been very hard on Graham, for blowing with the Trumpian wind. But on this, he is staunch — for which, due praise (and thanks).

• Looking at Michael Flynn recently — as he spoke with Steve Bannon, in an interview — I thought of Ramsey Clark. I will explain in a second. To Bannon, Flynn said his usual stuff about Russia: The Russians have limited objectives in Ukraine, and they have achieved them all. They are exposing U.S.-sponsored biolabs in Ukraine. “The guy that just showed up to speak to our Congress in a sweatsuit outfit should have been thrown out on his rear-end and not given another penny.” (Flynn was referring to Ukraine’s president, Volodymyr Zelensky.)

Par for the course.

In 2015, you remember, Flynn was a guest of honor at the tenth-anniversary gala for RT — “Russia Today,” the Kremlin propaganda network. He was seated next to Putin himself. Flynn was paid $45,000.

Okay, Ramsey Clark. When I was coming of age, he was regularly in the news, traveling the world, giving aid and succor to America’s enemies. He was what we once knew as a “com-symp.”

And I could barely wrap my mind around the fact that this man had been attorney general of the United States (when he was in his late thirties and early forties).

Similarly, I have a hard time fathoming that Michael Flynn was a U.S. Army general and director of the Defense Intelligence Agency. He seems to me a present-day version of a com-symp.

• Earlier, I spoke of Balts. Linas Linkevičius was foreign minister and defense minister of Lithuania. He has made a very interesting and even moving statement, under the title “Our Debt to Ukraine.” The subtitle: “Europe has been unwilling to understand the clear link between Ukraine’s freedom and its own.” Highly recommended: here.

• A report from the New York Times:

American and European officials believe that Russian military intelligence officers directed associates of a white supremacist militant group based in Russia to carry out a recent letter bomb campaign in Spain whose most prominent targets were the prime minister, the defense minister and foreign diplomats, according to U.S. officials.

Shockeroo.

• And this, ladies and gentlemen, is one of the most intriguing reports of the month: “Bulgaria to the rescue: How the EU’s poorest country secretly saved Ukraine.” That’s from Philip Volkmann-Schluck, of Die Welt. Here. A page from the “first draft of history.”