Former U.S. Marine Robert Gilman finally returned home after 1,666 days in Russian custody, but the man who stepped off the plane was barely recognizable. Emaciated, frail, and denied medical care throughout his imprisonment, Gilman had slipped into a catatonic state, battled severe pneumonia, and required tube feeding. His family had warned he was near death.
Russia's release, framed as a “humanitarian gesture,” did little to mask the reality of his ordeal. According to President Trump, Gilman's first request upon boarding the plane was a cheeseburger—a stark reminder of the starvation he endured. For a nation that prides itself on the “few and the proud,” the image of a Marine begging for basic sustenance is a damning indictment of Moscow's treatment of American citizens.
Gilman's case is not an isolated incident. At least ten Americans are confirmed by the U.S. government to be held in harsh conditions in Russia. Five—Aleksandr Antonov, David Barnes, Olga Jezler, Andre Khachatoorian, and Chuck Zimmerman—have been identified by advocates as meeting the criteria for wrongful detention. All are reported to face serious medical issues similar to those that nearly killed Gilman.
This reality stands in sharp contrast to the narrative pushed by some conservative media figures. Voices like Candace Owens and Tucker Carlson have long portrayed Russia as a traditional, high-functioning society with admirable values and world-class healthcare. Owens even traveled to sanctioned Russia in May to speak at a state-sponsored conference, returning to praise the country's medical system. Yet Russian healthcare is so exemplary that it sent an American Marine home catatonic, starving, and riddled with pneumonia after years of neglect.
My own reporting from Ukraine, where I interviewed released prisoners of war, corroborates these horrors. Ukrainian captives described systematic beatings, starvation, and daily torture. According to the UN High Commissioner for Human Rights, over 95% of Ukrainian POWs and 85% of captured civilians have been tortured or mistreated by Russia. When Ukrainian POWs recently testified before an informal UN Security Council gathering, Russia's deputy ambassador, Maria Zabolotskaya, dismissed their accounts as “a disinformation campaign.”
She is lying. Ukraine's military intelligence showed me photos of a prisoner who had been cut open without anesthesia, leaving a massive scar and a burned “Z”—the symbol of Russian invaders—etched into his skin. He was branded like cattle. A Ukrainian plastic surgeon later removed the mark free of charge, so the man wouldn't carry a permanent reminder of his torture.
Will American media continue to entertain the fiction that Putin is trustworthy while U.S. citizens remain hostages in Russia? The plane that brought Gilman home should have carried every American still in Russian custody. Releasing one tortured Marine does not make Putin a good man, nor does it warrant gratitude from Washington.
I am not advocating for war or abandoning diplomacy. But Americans must wake up. Putin's Russia is not an ally; it is an adversary that brutalizes our citizens and relies on sympathetic commentators to whitewash its actions, alongside its own propaganda machine. The America First approach demands we bring every American home and recognize that Russia is deliberately depriving them of liberty and torturing them, just as it has done to thousands of Ukrainians in this war.
