Our hearts break for the Ukrainian people, as bombs and missiles continue to wreck their cities, and we fear that the worst days may still be ahead.
Russian President Vladimir Putin is targeting noncombatants — in hospitals and temporary medical centers, women, children, and older people are arriving badly wounded or already dead. Putin’s forces now are indiscriminately attacking those trying to flee, or even people on line to get food. Russian forces shot and killed 10 people standing in line for bread in Chernihiv, including a United States citizen, James Hill, a week ago. Russian forces have been using cluster bombs and hypersonic missiles, both extremely difficult to block and both terrifyingly effective at killing civilians.
Will Putin take the next step and escalate to so-called tactical nuclear weapons? What was unthinkable little more than a month ago now seems possible. If there is a path to make the worst less thinkable, Ukraine and the West must seize it now.