Marie Yovanovitch Sends a Message to Putin with Bracelet

Former U.S. Ambassador to Ukraine Marie Yovanovitch had a four-letter message to send Russian President Vladimir Putin on Thursday — all without saying anything at all.

Appearing on Thursday's episode of The Late Show with Stephen Colbert, the 63-year-old Yovanovitch wore a beaded bracelet featuring the phrase "F--- You Putin."

Yovanovitch was on the show to promote her new memoir, Lessons From the Edge, when Colbert said he "noticed you have a bracelet there, a rather unusual bracelet."

"If you don't want to say it, I just noticed what it says," he said.

Yovanovitch wryly responded: "I'm going to let you say it, because I'm the diplomat."

"It says, 'F--- you, Putin,' " the host told her.

As the former ambassador explained, she had purchased the bracelets in bulk from Ukraine in 2017 and offered it to visitors to her office, including U.S. lawmakers. But the message has taken on a difference significance after the Russian autocrat launched a widely denounced invasion of Ukraine last month.

Russia's attack on Ukraine continues — displacing millions and killing hundreds — after their forces launched a large-scale invasion on Feb. 24. It's first major land conflict in Europe in decades.

The invasion has led to increasingly severe economic sanctions against Russia, with various countries pledging aid or military support to the resistance. Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy called for peace talks — so far unsuccessful — while urging his country to fight back.

"Nobody is going to break us, we're strong, we're Ukrainians," Zelenskyy told the European Union in a speech in the early days of the fighting, adding, "Life will win over death. And light will win over darkness."

Speaking to Colbert on Thursday, Yovanovitch said the will to fight has long been part of Ukrainian culture.

"When people ask me, 'How is it that the Ukrainian people are resisting like this?' I remind them about Taras Shevchenko, who was the poet laureate in the 1800s ... his most famous line is, 'Fight on and you will prevail,' and that's what Ukrainian children are brought up on," she said.

Elsewhere in the show, Yovanovitch — who served as ambassador from 2016 to 2019 — read aloud a text message from a friend who she said serves in the Ukraine parliament.

"We are outnumbered and outgunned ... we are increasingly threatened with chemical and tactical nuclear attacks," she read. "But with resolve, courage and dedication to protect our motherland, our freedoms and the rights we believe in, Ukrainian society is standing up to this barbaric terrorist war."

The friend's message continued: "We will fight til the last bullet and the last person, but we are pleading to the free world to help us. Defend the values that the free world shares to stop this apocalypse."

Yovanovitch first found herself thrust in the national spotlight in 2019, when she testified at then-President Donald Trump's first impeachment trial on charges of abuse of power and obstruction of Congress in connection with his Ukraine scandal.

Investigators said Trump withheld some $400 million in military aid from Ukraine while he pushed Ukraine's president to dig into former Vice President Joe Biden and Biden's family as well as probe a conspiracy theory about the 2016 election.

Trump was impeached by the U.S. House of Representatives, but ultimately acquitted of the charges in the Republican-controlled Senate.

The Russian attack on Ukraine is an evolving story, with information changing quickly. Follow PEOPLE's complete coverage of the war here, including stories from citizens on the ground and ways to help.

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