Russia is not worth writing about but here…

I have a few blockbuster Russia-related articles here on Medium. I’m not going to put links to them here to get more clicks and reads. I don’t write on Medium to make money. I write what my heart calls for. Often it’s Russia. Often it’s Ukraine. The heartbreak doesn’t go away. It never sinks in, this senseless bloody crime of historic scale.

Check out this couple of messages from my Mom today. She’s half Ukrainian and my stepfather’s family is in Ukraine, the part that’s now occupied Russia.

Translating (my mom’s messages are all a little broken — understandably so, as she’s emotional):

Yesterday Petr’s [my stepfather] brother finally got through to us. He’s asking to help — to evacuate Lera [my stepfather’s niece] and her baby and his son’s bride- to Western Ukraine. We talked a lot, Zhanna helped, Aunt Zinna [my mom’s Aunt who lives in Ukraine’s city of Vinnytsia]. We found something. Both girls [the ones being evacuated] are crying (I understand them). What if they never see their…