Declaration of Presidium of the National Academy of Sciences of Ukraine
Abstract
The Presidium of the National Academy of Sciences of Ukraine strongly condemns the military invasion of Ukraine started by Russia on 24 February 2022.
This is a barbarous, unprovoked and perfidious attack on an independent, peaceful and democratic country, which has already been denounced by the whole civilized world. 141 UN member states, as well as NATO and the European Union, urged Russia to stop violence and withdraw its troops from the Ukrainian territory.
Russian military aggression brings suffering and causes massive ruining, endangers the lives of the innumerable innocent people in Ukraine. For 12 days and nights devastating missile and artillery attacks of the enemy have been ruining cities and towns all over Ukraine, causing deaths of civilians and innocent children, smashing civil infrastructure – kindergartens, schools, hospitals and residential buildings. These are war crimes against humanity, whose evidence is seen by the whole world and which are already being investigated by the International Criminal Court in the Hague.
Russian bombings have also damaged objects of the scientific infrastructure of the National Academy of Sciences of Ukraine in Kyiv, Kharkiv, Sumy and other Ukrainian cities and towns. Our staff, like millions of Ukrainian citizens, have to hide in basements and bomb shelters, leave their homes and evacuate in search of places safe for their lives. Now endangered are peaceful nuclear facilities of the energy and scientific infrastructure. Their damage could lead to a technological and environmental disaster of not merely regional but of truly global scale.
Due to its actions Russia has already been isolated from the entire civilized world. Unprecedented international financial and economic sanctions are having a deadly effect on the Russian economy and technological development. Russia is being excluded from practically every international organization. S&T cooperation with Russian scientists and their access to international programs is being stopped. The list of organizations and associations that have refused to collaborate is now quite long, and is going to be extended even more. After the annexation of a part of the Ukrainian territory by Russia in 2014, the National Academy of Sciences of Ukraine has broken all scientific and S&T ties with Russian scientific institutions.
The Presidium of the National Academy of Sciences of Ukraine resolutely condemns the war unleashed by Russia, the unheard-of level of cruelty and war crimes. We call on international scientific organizations, including the International Association of Academies of Sciences, to join the condemnation of Russia’s barbarous aggression and the defense of Ukrainian people from annihilation. We call all decent Russian and Belorussian scientists not to be silent, to demonstrate their civil position and make every possible effort to stop the war.
07.03.2022
