University for Peace

Special Address
of the International Movement "Universities for Peace"
to the International University Community

Because of the military aggression of the Russian Federation, several universities, as well as other scientific and educational organizations in Ukraine, are under deliberate, intentional bombardment or under temporary occupation, which involves repressions against the intellectual elite of Ukrainian society. The Consortium "Universities for Peace" is asking the international community to support the following initiatives and processes:

1. The legal assessment of purposeful actions aimed at the destruction of the leading intellectual forces of the Ukrainian university community that can be defined as meritocide.
2. The process of creating a database of dead and injured professors, members of the university staff, and students as well as of those who need special assistance.
3. The assessment of the damage caused to the scientific and educational infrastructure of the country, the documentation of the war crimes related to the sphere of education.
4. The process of permanent monitoring and creation of databases by international human rights organizations, in particular those working to protect the rights of scientists, students, and employees of educational institutions.
5. Financial and humanitarian aid to ensure the survival of scientists, teachers, and students in the zone of temporary occupation, war zone, and in the territories of forced relocation.
6. The process of evacuation of educational institutions, as well as the organization of control over the safety of humanitarian corridors on the territory of Ukraine, as well as on the territories of neighboring countries, including the transit through the territory of the aggressor country.
7. The process of developing programs to overcome the humanitarian and educational crisis of universities in the zone of temporary occupation.
8. The process of informing scientific institutions, academies, international professional unions, network university structures, twin universities, partner universities, youth and student organizations, university sports organizations, alumni of Ukrainian universities, and international members of the boards of trustees living in different countries of the world and their integration into organizing multi-profile assistance.
9. The process of protection of the scientific, intellectual, and cultural heritage of Ukraine through international associations of libraries, including university libraries, and international associations of museums and archives.
10. Integration into this process of the university media structures – websites, newspapers, radio, and television.
11. The protection of university students, professors, and staff repressed in Russia who oppose their state's aggression against Ukraine.
12. The process of creating an international network of "refugee universities".
13. Taking measures to monitor research laboratories and centers that find themselves in temporarily occupied zones and pose a threat to international security if the looters, terrorists, etc. break in, or the control over environmental safety, in general, and radioactive situation, in particular, is lost.

Members of the Board of the "Universities for Peace" movement:

Maxim Lepskiy,
Doctor of Philosophy, Professor,
Professor of Sociology Department of Zaporizhzhia National University, Academician of the Ukrainian Academy of Sciences

Alexander Rusetsky,
Doctor of Psychology,
Head of the Caucasus Laboratory of Geopolitical Modelling of Caucasus International University

Ognyan Minchev,
Associate Professor of Sofia University “St. Kliment Ohridski”,
Director of Institute for Regional and International Studies

Viktor Kotygorenko,
Doctor of Political Sciences, Professor,
Head of Department of Kuras Institute of Political and Ethnic Studies of the National Academy of Sciences of Ukraine

Igor Kudinov,
PhD, Associate Professor,
Associate Professor of Sociology Department of Zaporizhzhia National University