Thank you for letting me know that it’s Hind Rajab Day.
I think of Hind now, of her mother and family, the dispatcher, and the tens of thousands of children who perished. I sit next to a sleeping cat, both of us in front of a roaring fire almost too warm. I think of what Hind Rajab Day means.
Outside, clean snow drifts and ice crystals freeze the fallen trees, broken logs, and scattered plants in soft sculptural mounds. The sounds of Canada geese in the sky, a passing train, and nearby foxes muffle in the cold air. Hind sat alone, the only breathing form among broken concrete and punctured steel, bullets, shrapnel, and smoke. A nearby tank. We observe Hind Rajab Day because people and politics made it impossible for her to live.
For one day in a year we commemorate Hind Rajab because this is all we have to give. If we had let her live, she would have a lifetime of Hind Rajab days to celebrate with family, friends, neighbors, classmates, and eventually perhaps a life partner, even her own children and grandchildren. I think of Hind.
The flames are smaller now, quieter as the coals brighten and crackle in ash. The radiant heat is comfortable. I wonder, is this the year that we finally end the ruin? Will we find our way back to humanity? I think of Hind.
Remember how in 2017, Alexei traveled all over Russia during his presidential campaign? More than 50 cities in less than a year. He was very tired. But he came back from each trip with absolutely sparkling eyes.
Communication with people was important to him. He wanted to be the kind of politician that understands the real Russia, with all its complexities and peculiarities. This helped him come up with ideas that would benefit everyone…That’s why he was so good at being their representative, at being our representative…
And then what happened, happened. The arrests, the war, Alexei’s murder. Life changed completely. We found ourselves scattered all over the world…
Maybe you remember in Alice in Wonderland the White Rabbit says to Alice, darling, this is the kind of place where you have to run as fast as you can just to stay in the same place, and to get somewhere else you have to run twice as fast…I’m ready to run as fast as I can.
Write to me about anything, about what seems important to you right now, about what helps you hold on. Write to me at letter@yulianavalnaya.com
Dear Yulia,
I meant to write to you back in February 2024, the morning your husband was killed in a frozen Arctic gulag that failed to swallow his light. The news I dreaded seemed to crackle from the phone to my heart, suffocating me at the bottom of the Polar sea, like a brinicle, a finger of death paralyzing everything in its reach.
I’m deeply saddened and sorry that Alexei was taken from you and your family, and also from all of us around the world who remain awed and inspired by his courage to champion democracy and truth against oppression and persecution, always unafraid. During his campaign, you and he must have been on fire with hope and conviction, determined to deliver democracy to the people of Russia.
Recently, you invited people to write to you about what seems important, or anything at all, though I think you were asking Russians at home and in diaspora. I wish I could write to you as a Russian and reminisce with you about daily life in your homeland, the wonderful and not so wonderful, the flavors and sights, the casual conversations with friends and neighbors, even the fears and frustrations, and what is yet to come in society, economics, and politics. I don’t know what it is to be Russian, but I understand the cost to humanity when corrupt and barbaric people accrete power and otherwise decent human beings stay quiet. As tyranny spreads, we fearfully, incrementally yield our rights and the rights of others, gradually becoming less human until we somehow tolerate poisonings, disappearances, torture, and murder. In contrast, Alexei refused this moral descent. During his funeral and in the following days, we saw how many thousands of people also rejected intimidation and fear to pay their respects to the man who inspired them.
Please know that I wrote to President Putin three times asking for Alexei’s release. In one letter, I quoted Yevgeny Yevtushenko’s poem, “Dwarf birches” and one night, when I worried that Alexei’s condition was critical, I sent an email to the Kremlin. It seems feeble, I know, but such is our world that this was all I knew to do. I wish Alexei could be with you.
What seems important to me lately is your voice, the voice of Alexei Navalny and Catherine Connolly and likeminded leaders defending a rights-driven politics that serves the people, defends our rights, and protects us from the brutality of dictatorship. What’s important to me is speaking up and speaking the truth. Truth is the most important thing.
I’m so pleased to write to you and share how much your video messages inspire me, and I look forward to reading Patriot with Alexei’s voice alive again in his written words.
I hope you and your family, friends, and staff are very well.
I’m writing to you again to urge the immediate release of Dr. Hussam Abu Safiya, a pediatrician and the director of Kamal Adwan Hospital in Gaza.
He was taken by Israeli forces on 27 December 2024, along with other hospital staff and patients, during a deadly raid on the hospital, now reduced to rubble.
Despite his son’s death a year ago this month, Dr. Safiya, 51, shared regular, reliable updates about the deteriorating healthcare and hospital conditions in North Gaza and continued to treat the endless stream of incoming patients. Many of these children died from catastrophic injuries because the heavily bombed hospital no longer had medicine, sterile instruments, bandages, or any of the life-saving equipment it once had.
Amnesty International and other human rights groups have collected testimonies from those who survived imprisonment. The consistent testimonies reveal systematic torture and other abuses, denial of the right to a fair trial, due process, adequate food, clean water, and medical care. I’m deeply concerned about Dr. Safiya’s health and reason for being in prison as he hasn’t been charged with a crime, and independent monitors haven’t been allowed to meet with him.
I’ve never met Dr. Safiya in person, but I know there aren’t enough hours in a day for any man to do more than manage a hospital under constant attack, treat an endless influx of injured and dying children, and try to see his own grieving family. Dr. Safiya is a hospital director, a doctor, and a family man, nothing more.
Without a criminal charge, Dr. Safiya’s detention and ill-treatment are serious violations of international law. Therefore, I once again urge you to secure the immediate release of Dr. Hussam Abu Safiya and the other health workers detained in Israel. Until they’re released, please provide adequate medical care, clean food and water, and protection from torture and other ill-treatment, including coercion.
Since the ceasefire, our world is hopeful again. I trust you also feel this welcome change as we bravely dare to live long and happy lives in peace, together.
I send best wishes to you and your family, friends, staff, and citizens.
At the 80th United Nations General Assembly, Dialogue of Civilizations, you proposed an army (larger than that of the United States) comprised of soldiers from all willing nations to enforce the orders of international justice starting with the liberation of Palestine. You said, “Here humanity has been challenged and humanity must respond.”
Because the gears of change grind slowly, would you help mobilize willing nations to send their naval ships to the Global Sumud Flotilla now? I understand Italy has sent two naval ships and Spain has sent one, equipped with a helicopter.
I want to do something, anything, but I don’t know what. I know only that you’re right, that humanity must respond.
Mr. President, I respectfully urge you to use your powers to mobilize nations for Palestine, including you own, to send naval vessels to ensure safe passage for the Global Sumud Flotilla carrying only survival aid and innocent civilians desperately trying to open a humanitarian gateway to Gaza.
Thank you for your powerful speech at the United Nations General Assembly that you delivered on behalf of everyone in Gaza. You shared photos of the daily desperation in Gaza and asked us to feel our own conscience to answer what reasonable reason could there be to explain this brutality in 2025?
We repeat the horrors of history without understanding why, but we also act, disrupt, intervene, rescue, and in the end prove we are human after all.
Mr. President, would you call on National Defense Minister Yaşar Güler to designate a vessel from the Turkish Naval Forces to join the Italian Navy ship now assisting in safe passage for the Global Sumud flotilla? The flotilla claims to carry only humanitarian volunteers and survival aid for Gazans.
I respectfully urge you to mobilize your partnerships in the region to secure and galvanize a gateway to Gaza so the remaining people there may survive another day.
I hope you, your family, friends, staff and fellow citizens are very well.
I wish to respectfully share an urgent consideration for you and His Excellency, Mr. Prime Minister Mostafa Madbouly as he represents Egypt at the United Nations General Assembly convening now in New York.
As you know, the Prime Minister reaffirmed Egypt’s commitment to a safe and stable Middle East, and underscored the significance of the New York declaration to renew the international community’s commitment to the right of the Palestinian people to an independent state. Prime Minister Madbouly also stated that what is required of the UN delegates today is to take practical steps toward a lasting peace process.
As one of the many steps toward peace, will you and your key delegates find a way to join Turkey and other nations in securing safe passage of food, water, and medicine onboard the Global Sumud flotilla to Gaza? Their boats are approaching Egypt and Turkey today.
Of course meaningful protections against terrorism and ensuring national security in all countries must follow, but as mounting international evidence reveals, time has run out for civilians in Gaza as they struggle to escape death. Can we, as fellow human beings, narrow our focus and momentarily mute the politics to ensure the Sumud flotilla reaches shore without harm?
We’re no longer talking about humanitarian aid, if we were, we wouldn’t be mourning the tens of thousands of people, including 20,000 children, who have died for nothing. All we can claim to deliver now is survival aid, the bare minimum of water, food, and medicine, and a path forward for desperately needed emergency medical equipment and supplies, safe shelter, and reliable transport. For too many innocent people this is far too late, but for those who remain, with nothing left but dust, maybe this is enough for one more day.
Without delay, please call on your partnerships in the region to ensure that the Sumud flotilla safely reaches Gaza.
With hope and gratitude,
Nancy Kivette
P.S. I hope you can pardon the avenue of this message; I tried to email through Share an Idea on the presidential website, but didn’t find the option for United States, thank you.
Rogue Diplomacy 