I wonder if my friend Maksym Butkevych knows the name of House Speaker Mike Johnson.
Maksim He is a defender of Ukraine and a prisoner of war held by Russian forces since 2022. There has been no word from Max since August, months before Johnson became president.
I don't know how much news reaches his cell. Do his captors taunt him with stories about Johnson from Louisiana and his fellow House Republicans who abandoned Maksym and Ukraine to the brutality of Russian invaders?
Surveys show a solid majority of Americans still support financial and military aid to Ukraine to defend itself from Russia's illegal aggression. Providing that support aligns with our values, boosts our economy, and contributes to our security without putting American lives at risk.
But Johnson's Republicans have let the aid withoutblocking a $60 billion request from the White House just as Russian forces have stepped up their criminal activities. attacks on Ukrainian civilians.
If only Mike Johnson knew Maksym Butkevych. As an avowed man of faith and patriotism, Johnson might even be inspired by it. Max has long demonstrated rare courage in standing up for the inalienable rights that we Americans seek to defend.
Max began to confront the Soviet regime at the age of 13. In 1990, he joined university students who began a mass hunger strike for rights and autonomy in the Soviet Union. It was Ukraine's “Granite Revolution,” an overlooked precursor to the Orange Revolution of 2004-2005 and the Revolution of Dignity (or Maidan Revolution) of 2013-2014. Addressing thousands of people gathered in kyiv's central square, young Max took a microphone and called for the independence of Ukraine, shouting a phrase now known throughout the world: “Ukrainian Slav!: Glory to Ukraine!
After Ukraine gained its independence, Max embarked on a career as a journalist committed to exposing post-Soviet corruption and covering the poor and marginalized. He continued to work as an advocate for those he had reported on: refugees, displaced people, and members of Ukraine's LGBTQ+ community. His indiscriminate and inexhaustible compassion was recently honored with the 2023 award. Anne Frank Special Recognition Awardwhich his father, Oleksandr, accepted in his place.
When Russia invaded Crimea and eastern Ukraine in 2014, forcing thousands of Ukrainians to flee their homes, Max helped unite citizens from different regions of the country. calling for “a transparent and non-corrupt system of government for the benefit of all, regardless of their origin and political opinion.” When Russia tortured and imprisoned Ukrainian activists in occupied territory, Max tirelessly required for release throughout the world.
Then came the full-scale Russian invasion in February 2022. Max was widely known as a pacifist, but he wasted no time. join the armed forces of Ukraine. Many of us who knew him thought he would prefer to help the millions of Ukrainians who had suddenly become refugees due to Russian brutality. But his quick decision to take up arms was a warning to us all.
Max understood something that many of us failed to understand even after two years of full-scale war in Russia. He knew that this kind of unbridled, unprovoked aggression cannot be managed, negotiated, or desired from a distance. It must be fought head-on before it spreads.
“I have to put my humanitarian work and my human rights activism on hold,” Max said after enlisting. “There are times when you have to be prepared to defend what is important. Everything else comes after the victory.”
Max is sacrificing everything for the ideals of freedom and equality that America holds dear. Johnson and his Republicans should call for his release and do everything in his power to help his people and enable his victory. Instead, they are standing in the way of bipartisan legislation that a majority of Americans support and enabling an aggressor state that openly fantasizes about our division and destruction.
I wonder if my friend Maksym Butkevych knows the name of House Speaker Mike Johnson. And I wonder if Max sees us, in the land of the free and the home of the brave, hanging our heads in shame.
Rory Finnin is professor of Ukrainian studies at the University of Cambridge and author of “Blood of Others: Stalin's Crimean Atrocity and the Poetics of Solidarity.”
