For the past month, Verizon Wireless has chosen to air a Mother’s Day-themed commercial featuring Alex Ovechkin, a man who has spent years publicly supporting Vladimir Putin and helping promote his political image. On Mother’s Day of all days, Verizon made the deliberate decision to associate its brand with a Putin loyalist while Putin himself is the subject of an International Criminal Court arrest warrant for the unlawful deportation and transfer of Ukrainian children.

There is nothing ambiguous about Ovechkin’s relationship with the Russian regime. In 2017, he founded “PutinTeam” to support Putin’s political campaign and publicly rallied support around the Russian president. Since Russia launched its full-scale invasion of Ukraine, Ovechkin has refused to meaningfully distance himself from Putin and proudly displays a photo with Putin as his Instagram profile photo.

For Ukrainians in America and around the world, many of whom are Verizon customers, and whose families have been killed, displaced, tortured, or separated by Russia’s war, this decision is insulting and reprehensible. Verizon chose to platform and celebrate a man who has willingly aligned himself with a regime responsible for mass atrocities and the forced removal of Ukrainian children from their families.

Verizon should immediately pull this commercial and publicly explain why it believed Mother’s Day was an appropriate occasion to promote a longtime supporter of Vladimir Putin.