The ongoing Russian invasion of Ukraine has led to a major humanitarian crisis. At the time of this writing, March 19, 2022, more than 3 million Ukrainians, including 1 million children, have fled to neighboring countries to escape the war. The Ukrainian people are under direct attack, and they need our immediate support!
Russian citizens who oppose the war are subject to arrest and persecution; over two hundred thousand of them are estimated to have already left their country. At the same time, many citizens of Belarus have left their own country for similar reasons.
The war has inflicted immeasurable pain on the scholarly community in Ukraine and devastation on the Russian and Belarusian academia.
Support displaced Ukrainian students and scholars
In addition to offering moral support to our Ukrainian colleagues, we strive to provide them with access to laboratories and research centers across the globe. Some members of the international academic community have pledged their support by offering to host Ukrainian colleagues in their research facilities across North America and in other countries. The Russian academic diaspora has joined this effort, but more should be done. By supporting the careers of displaced students and scholars, we can take a tangible part in promoting the rapid rebuilding of post-war Ukraine and mitigating the socio-economic implications of this war.
Emergency funding is needed to enable participating laboratories and research centers across the EU, US, Canada, Japan, South Korea, and other countries to provide on-site and remote training and job opportunities for displaced students and scholars from Ukraine. Some have been displaced, together with their dependents and close relatives, young and old, and we need immediate solutions to keep their families together. Concerted efforts should be made without delay to create short and long-term fellowships and to provide visa support, rapid immigration procedures, and travel assistance.
Support Russian and Belarusian students and scholars
We need to distinguish between the sanctions on the Russian government and how we treat Russian students and scholars who oppose the war. The war in Ukraine is Putin’s war, not theirs. People in the sciences and the humanities have consistently opposed Putin’s regime in multiple ways since long before the current events and have taken a brave stance against the war. Anti-war protesters in Russia, mostly young professionals, are being arrested and can be imprisoned for up to 15 years under a recently enacted Russian law.
With the growing suppression of free speech by the Russian government, on the one hand, and the negative impact of Western sanctions, on the other, the anti-war Russian students and scholars are in double jeopardy. They are at risk of international isolation and increased state persecution, especially in face of massive internet shutdowns and the tightening stranglehold on information. The same applies to Belarusian scholars suffering under the Lukashenko regime.
Some of these scholars remain in their countries; others have chosen to flee. We strongly encourage all our colleagues to keep their individual connections and support Russian and Belarusian professionals who oppose the war but cannot leave the country for various reasons. As for those fleeing Russia and Belarus in fear of state persecution, they qualify for refugee status and need support from academe and governments.
We call on the international academic community to commit our time and effort to support Ukrainian, Russian, and Belarussian scholars affected by this war. Together we must help those in need to continue their work and education and ultimately build a better future for their countries and humankind.
- Natalia Berloff, mathematician, University of Cambridge, UK
- Alexandra Boltasseva, electrical engineer, Purdue University, USA
- Mark Borodovsky, computational biologist, Georgia Tech, USA
- Tatiana Bronich, chemist, Northeastern University, USA
- Dmitry Bykov, writer, Cornell University, USA
- Maria Chekhova, physicist, Max-Planck Institute for the Science of Light, Germany
- Leonid Chernomordik, biologist, National Institutes of Health, USA
- Alexander Dizhoor, neuroscientist, Salus University, USA
- Irina Dubinina, Slavic scholar, Brandeis University, USA
- Igor Efimov, biophysicist, George Washington University, USA
- Sergei Erofeev, sociologist, Rutgers University, USA, Polish Institute of Advanced Studies, Poland
- Pavel Etingof, mathematician, Massachusetts Institute of Technology, USA
- Alexander Etkind, historian, European University, Italy
- Mikhail Epstein, cultural scholar, Emory University, USA
- Valery Fokin, chemist, University of Southern California
- Andre Geim, physicist, University of Manchester, UK
- Vadim Gladyshev, biochemist, Harvard University, USA
- Yury Gogotsi, materials scientist, Drexel University, USA
- Dmitry Gordenin, geneticist, National Institute of Environmental Health Sciences, NIH
- Andrei Gudkov, oncology researcher, Roswell Park Comprehensive Cancer Center, USA
- Sergei Guriev, economist, Sciences Po, Paris, France
- Olga Gursky, biophysicist, Boston University School of Medicine, USA
- Oleg Itskhoki, economist, University of California, Los Angeles, USA
- Misha Ivanov, physicist, Max-Born Institute and Humboldt University, Berlin, Germany
- Alexander Kabanov, chemist, University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill, USA
- Mikhail Kats, applied physicist, University of Wisconsin-Madison, USA
- Mikhail Katsnelson, physicist, Radboud University, Netherlands
- Eugene Koonin, biologist, National Library of Medicine, National Institutes of Health, USA
- Dmitry Korkin, computational biologist, Worcester Polytechnic Institute, USA
- Igor Kramnik, immunologist, Boston University, USA
- Alex Krasnok, physicist, Florida International University, USA
- Anna Krichevsky, neurobiologist, Harvard University, Brigham and Women’s Hospital, USA
- Andrei Linde, physicist, Stanford University, USA
- Mark Lipovetsky, philologist, Columbia University, USA
- Natalia Litchinitser, physicist, Duke University, USA
- Olga Matich, philologist, University of California Berkeley, USA
- Ruslan Medzhitov, immunologist, Yale University, USA
- Igor Mel’čuk, linguist, Universite Quebec a Montreal, Canada
- Slava Mukhanov, physicist, Ludwig Maximilian University of Munich, Germany
- Dmitry Murzin, chemical engineer, Abo Akademi University, Finland
- Mikhail Nikiforov, molecular biologist, Duke University, USA
- Konstantin Novoselov, physicist, National University of Singapore, USA
- Dmitri Orlov, aerospace engineer, University of California San Diego, USA
- Vadim Paperny, artist, University of California, Los Angeles, USA
- Alexej Pashkin, physicist, Helmholtz-Zentrum Dresden-Rossendorf, Germany
- Pavel Pevzner, computational biologist, University of California, San Diego, USA
- Maria Polinsky, linguist, University of Maryland, USA
- Irina Rish, computer scientist, University of Montreal, and Mila – Quebec AI Institute, Canada
- Alexander Rudensky, immunologist, Memorial Sloan-Kettering Cancer Center, USA
- Roald Sagdeev, physicist, University of Maryland, USA
- Irina Sekerina, cognitive scientist, The Graduate Center, City University of New York, USA
- Denis Seletskiy, physicist, Polytechnique Montréal, Canada
- Vladimir Shalaev, physicist, Purdue University, USA
- Dmitri N. Shalin, sociologist, University of Nevada, Las Vegas, USA
- Stanislav Shvabrin, slavist, University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill, USA
- Olga Smirnova, physicist, Max-Born Institute and Technical University, Berlin, Germany
- Konstantin Sonin, economist, University of Chicago, USA
- Svetlana Sukhishvili, materials scientist, Texas A&M University, USA
- Shamil Sunyaev, geneticist, Harvard University, USA
- Tatiana Tatarinova, computational biologist, University of La Verne, USA
- Vasily Temnov, physicist, CNRS, Ecole Polytechnique, France
- Dmitry Turchinovich, physicist, Bielefeld University, Germany
- Lyubov Titova, physicist, Worcester Polytechnic Institute, USA
- Alexander Tropsha, computational chemist, University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill, USA
- Vitaly Vanchurin, physicist, National Institutes of Health, USA
- Efim Zelmanov, mathematician, University of California, San Diego, USA
- Ariel Zhitnitsky, physicist, University of British Columbia, Canada
- Alexander Zholkovsky, philologist, University of Southern California, USA
- Andrei Zorin, Cultural Historian, University of Oxford, UK
All signatories signed as private individuals
A partial list of prior statements of Russian-speaking scholars against the war in Ukraine
● An open letter of Russian scientists and science journalists against the war in Ukraine (published 02/24/2022, over 8000 signatories)
t-invariant.org/2022/02/we-are-against-war/
● Stop the war! A declaration of the Russian-speaking academic diaspora (published 02/25/2022, over 500 signatories) docs.google.com/document/d/16kHjs3nwWM4Qb_c0OAZbNb6cH74cwaWDvuOzi7gzwXs/mobilebasic
● Community of the Moscow State University against the war (over 7000 alumni, students & faculty signatories, names now hidden because of retaliation) msualumniagainstwar.notion.site/0378ab0a0719486181781e8e2b360180
● An open letter from students-members of the list “Talents of Russia” of the Presidential Fund “Talent and Success” to the President of the Russian Federation V. V. Putin docs.google.com/document/u/0/d/1kH4Z9KhsGSax1Xa8IQ2rB5uqCrp_h7t63W1_ZwLoKUc/mobilebasic
● Health Scientists From the Former USSR Working in the United Stated Call to Stop Russia’s Criminal War Against Ukraine sciprotest.com
21.03.2022