(c) 1995-present





OPEN APPEAL

Public of Ukraine

77

We, representatives of the 40-million-strong Ukrainian nation, with a millennia-long history of statehood and deep democratic traditions, who have always belonged to the family of European nations, appeal to the leaders of states and the entire progressive international community.

Since February 20, 2014, Ukraine has been a victim of military aggression by the Russian Federation and, for almost eleven years, has been fighting to defend its right to exist, exercising, in accordance with the UN Charter, the Ukrainian people’s right to self-defense.

This unprovoked war has caused immense suffering to our nation. Under the false pretext of a “special military operation,” Russia launched a full-scale invasion in February 2022. Every day, Russian military actions and continuous missile and bomb attacks on Ukrainian cities and villages claim the lives of Ukrainian men, women, and children who simply seek to live peacefully on their own land.

Ukraine lives under constant air raid alerts, facing relentless assaults by thousands of attack drones, ballistic, and cruise missiles targeting infrastructure across the country. These actions aim to destroy Ukraine’s economy and keep its people in a state of humanitarian and ecological disaster. Millions of square meters of housing, thousands of schools, hospitals, non-military facilities, and vital water, heating, and energy infrastructure have already been destroyed. Occupied cities and villages, bombed homes, and unbearable suffering have forced millions of Ukrainians to leave their homeland in search of safety abroad.

Ukraine is drowning in blood: hundreds of thousands of soldiers and civilians have been killed or injured. Contrary to international law and the customs of war, the Russian Federation systematically murders civilians, commits sexual violence against women and girls, tortures and executes Ukrainian soldiers, and forcibly deports hundreds of thousands of children from the occupied territories of Ukraine.

By blocking ports and destroying Ukraine’s agricultural infrastructure, Russia has created a food crisis in many Asian and African countries and caused ecological catastrophes on land and at sea.

The scale of destruction of Ukrainian cities and villages, the systemic torture and persecution of Ukrainians in the occupied territories, and the devastating loss of human life are clear evidence that Russia is waging a genocidal war against the Ukrainian people.

The objectives of the Putin regime in this war are imperialistic and revanchist: to annihilate the Ukrainian people as a distinct ethnic community and to eliminate Ukraine as a geopolitical reality. By seeking to absorb Ukraine, Russia aims to restore its empire and pursue a policy of global revanchism that threatens the international rules-based order. In this war, Russia has violated all bilateral agreements, undermined international law, and disrupted the stability of the Euro-Atlantic region by dismantling the architecture of global security.

In the 1990s, Ukraine voluntarily renounced the world’s third-largest nuclear arsenal in exchange for security guarantees under the 1994 Budapest Memorandum. As part of this disarmament process, Ukraine transferred to Russia approximately 2,000 strategic nuclear warheads and over 3,500 tactical nuclear weapons. However, this arsenal was not dismantled as planned; instead, it was used to strengthen Russia’s military potential. This decision not only created preconditions for Russia’s aggression against Ukraine but also dealt a severe blow to the global nonproliferation regime and the post-Cold War world order.

Guaranteeing Ukraine’s security against Russian aggression is possible only through NATO membership or, in the interim, by granting Ukraine the status of a Major Non-NATO Ally of the United States. Any concessions to Moscow regarding Ukraine’s security and territorial integrity would amount to appeasement of the aggressor, encouraging further crimes and aggression.

It is this Russia that Ukraine has been resisting for eleven years. No ceasefire or just peace with Moscow will be effective without international coercion, as the Russian leadership is deeply committed to destroying Ukraine and appropriating its historical heritage.

Today, we are witnessing a crisis of the international legal order established after World War II. In these times of “stable uncertainty” and the search for a new global framework, especially for European security, the personal leadership of the world’s leading states is of paramount importance.

We believe such leadership entails great responsibility not only to the global community and one’s own nations but also to other nations, including Ukraine, which is courageously fighting for its existence, the stable development of its state, its nation, and its indigenous peoples while upholding democratic values.

We therefore appeal to the leadership of the United States, the United Kingdom, France, China, Germany, the European Union, the G20 countries, and the international community with the following proposals:

  1. With deep gratitude for the assistance already provided to Ukraine in repelling Russia’s armed aggression, we call for the continuation of initiatives aimed at stopping the war. This is our shared mission.
  2. Ukraine needs a just peace achieved from a position of collective strength, including adherence to UN resolutions and within the borders of 1991. Such peace must ensure the punishment of the aggressor for crimes of aggression, genocide, war crimes, and crimes against humanity, as well as securing reparations and implementing more effective additional sanctions, including a full embargo on energy supplies.
  3. Ukraine requires guarantees of lasting and sustainable peace to secure its territorial integrity and defense capabilities, including collective security mechanisms, as well as prospects for a sovereign, democratic, and stable future.
  4. Ukraine must not become a buffer zone between the democratic, civilized world and the totalitarian Russian Federation, between the rule of law and the law of force. Instead, it must have the prospect of becoming a modern, democratic, legal, and innovative state capable of defending itself.

By supporting Ukraine, you are defending the values of the modern, civilized, democratic world and a secure global order!

Signatories

People’s Deputies of the Verkhovna Rada of Ukraine (1st–6th convocations)

Heroes of Ukraine (2001–2024)

Public Figures, Scholars, Artists, and Managers of Ukraine

03179 Kyiv, 4/15 Priluzhna St., office 213, Ukraine
e-mail: ua.mediacenter.eu@gmail.com
http://www.uacenter.media

Independent Media Forum, 25 January 2025; 13:33

January 17, 2025
Kyiv/Vienna

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