It’s a bracing message.
The former U.S. ambassador to Ukraine wore a small bracelet that read “F--- you Putin” while appearing on “The Late Show with Stephen Colbert” on Thursday.
Marie Yovanovitch, 63, was the ambassador from 2016 to 2019 and told Colbert that she bought the bracelets in bulk while in Ukraine in 2017. She handed them out to people who visited the embassy in Kyiv, sharing her thoughts on the Russian leader.
Colbert prompted Yovanovitch to read the bracelet live on Thursday night’s show, but Yovanovitch deferred, saying “I’m going to let you say it, because I’m the diplomat.” Never one to hold back, Colbert obliged. Yovanovitch responded by gifting him the bracelet.
Putin’s unprovoked war on Ukraine has moved slower than the he hoped, and the Russian military has responded by ramping up bombing campaigns deeper into central and western Ukraine.
The Russians also bombed a maternity ward and children’s hospital in the besieged southeastern city of Mariupol earlier this week.
Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy and other Ukrainian leaders have vowed to continue the fight.
“If (the Russians) carry out carpet bombings and wipe off the historic memory of the entire region, the history of Kyivan Rus, the history of Europe, they could enter Kyiv,” Zelenskyy said Saturday.
Yovanovitch was on “The Late Show” to promote her new book, “Lessons From the Edge,” which focuses on her role in the first impeachment of former President Donald Trump.
