[oberlist] Fwd: Statement on Russia's Attack on the National Academy of Sciences of Ukraine

[Asociația Oberliht]

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From: RUTA <association at ruta-association.org>
Date: Thu, Oct 22, 2026 at 9:58 AM
Subject: Statement on Russia's Attack on the National Academy of Sciences
of Ukraine
To: <info at oberliht.org>


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*Statement by the RUTA Association on Russia's Attack on the National
Academy of Sciences of Ukraine*

The RUTA Association stands in solidarity with the National Academy of
Sciences of Ukraine and calls on the international academic community to
respond decisively to Russia's continued attacks on Ukrainian
civilians,research institutions, and intellectual life.

On *28 September*, a Russian drone struck the Praesidium building of the
National Academy of Sciences of Ukraine in central Kyiv. The attack was
deliberately carried out in broad daylight, while Ukrainian scholars and
staff were at work. At least two people were killed, and others were
injured. According to various estimates, about two hundred Ukrainian
scientists have been killed on the frontlines and in the rear since the
start of the full-scale invasion.

The strike on the National Academy of Sciences forms part of a broader
campaign of violence against Ukraine and its people. In 2025, civilians in
Ukraine suffered the highest number of verified casualties since the
beginning of the Russian invasion in 2014. Across Ukraine, Russian attacks
continue to kill civilians, destroy homes, schools, hospitals, and critical
infrastructure, and force entire communities from their homes.

The genocidal violence directed against the Ukrainian people is inseparable
from a campaign of *epistemicide*: the systematic destruction, silencing,
and devaluation of a people's knowledge systems and ways of knowing.
Epistemicide includes the deliberate destruction of books and publications,
research institutions, archives, libraries, and scholars. It also
encompasses the systematic targeting of culture, cultural institutions, and
artists.

Russia has once again demonstrated that its war against Ukraine is not only
a war against lives and territory. It is also a war against Ukraine's
memory, language, culture, and future. A genocidal attempt to eliminate a
nation and its identity.

We stand in solidarity with Ukrainian scholars, librarians, archivists, and
cultural workers who carry and produce generations of knowledge about
Ukrainian history, culture, language, and self-determination.

We call upon our colleagues in the wider international academic community
to:

   - Publicly condemn Russia’s targeting of Ukrainian research and cultural
   institutions;
   - Support Ukrainian scholars and institutions through funding,
   fellowships, and research partnerships, as well as through speaking and
   publishing opportunities, in ways that provide space for critical analysis
   of the systematic injustice of Russian imperialism and opportunities for
   scholars who raise such structural concerns to be properly heard;
   - Assist Ukrainian efforts to document, preserve, and safeguard
   Ukrainian archives, collections, and scholarship at risk;
   - Refuse to normalise or reproduce Russian imperial narratives in
   research, teaching, and public debate;
   - Refuse to normalise collaboration with Russian institutions and
   organisations that support, justify, or benefit from Russia's war against
   Ukraine, and resist efforts to reintegrate such institutions into
   international academic and cultural life
   - Support efforts to hold Russia accountable for crimes committed
   against the Ukrainian people and Ukrainian culture.

*RUTA Association for Central, South-Eastern and Eastern European, Baltic,
Caucasus, Central, Northern and Eastern Asian Studies in Global
Conversation*
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© Copyright, 2026, RUTA Association for Central, South-Eastern, and Eastern
European, Baltic, Caucasus, Central and Northern Asian Studies in Global
Conversation •
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