This is what happens to Ukrainians under Russian occupation.

People are hunted, tortured, imprisoned, and erased. Civilians disappear. Elderly people are sentenced like hardened criminals. Loyalty to Ukraine is treated as a crime.

And yet, we are being told — implicitly and sometimes explicitly — that Ukraine should give up on these people. That we should accept occupation for the sake of an imaginary “peace” with terrorists.

In reality, this means looking away. Pretending not to see. Accepting that millions of Ukrainians are left behind in prisons, basements, and courts run by an occupying power.

Take this case: A 69-year-old Ukrainian pensioner, Svitlana Loy, from the occupied Zaporizhzhia region was sentenced to 15 years in prison by a Russian court for donating the equivalent of $700 to Ukraine’s Armed Forces. She was forced to take a Russian passport under occupation and never renounced her Ukrainian citizenship. Her “crime” was to stand with her country.

She is a Hero. My Hero.

And history is clear about what happens next. When Russia finishes “digesting” Ukrainians in the occupied territories — breaking them, silencing them, reeducating them — it does not stop. It comes back for more.

Appeasement does not save lives. It only delays the next wave of violence.

Turning away today guarantees a bigger war tomorrow.