As discussions about ending Russia’s war against Ukraine resurface, Natalia Arno, President of Free Russia Foundation, stresses that true peace cannot be reduced to lines on a map while ignoring the lives stolen by the Kremlin’s crimes:
Discussions about ending the war often circle around borders. For Ukrainians, these borders are not abstract lines on a map — they are sacred, defended at immense cost in lives, dignity, and sovereignty. To reduce them to bargaining chips would be to dismiss Ukraine’s right to exist as a free nation.
But while borders dominate negotiations, we cannot ignore another truth: Russia continues to commit grave crimes beyond the battlefield. Thousands of Ukrainian citizens remain hostages in Russia’s hidden prisons, some held for years in isolation. Even more appalling is the systematic kidnapping of children — stolen from orphanages, hospitals, or the arms of dying parents. Many have been trafficked into adoption by Russian families, their identities erased, their futures stolen. Some have simply vanished.
There can be no peace, no justice, until this medieval wrong is undone. Ukrainian prisoners of war, civilians, and above all, the children must be returned home. Borders matter deeply — but so does every life torn away, too. Without both, any agreement will remain a hollow shell of peace.